Over 1000 poultry birds culled in Manipur

Our Correspondent IMPHAL, April 20 So far more than 1000 chickens, 1050 eggs and few dugs have been culled and buried in Manipur today following the confirmation of bird flu in Imphal. Necessary steps are being taken up to tackle the disease by deploying deploying rapid response teams for culling and surveillance and also opening a control room.After a gap of eight years, avian influenza (bird flu) has flown back to Manipur after the sample sent for testing at Bhopal turned out to be positive. State Director of Veterinary and animal husbandry Dr M Rajendra said that the culling and burial has started. The fowl owners shall be adequately compensated.However the compensation amount is yet to be approved, Dr Rajendra told reporters in Imphal on Monday evening.The compensation amount for broiler chicken was Rs 30 a kg when the state faced a similar situation in 2007. Meanwhile, the District Magistrate of Imphal West district has issued a notification on Monday asking the shops and markets dealing with poultry.poultry feed and eggs and the prohibition of sale thereof within a radius of 10 km from the infected site until completion of culling and sanitization operations.It also asked the forest department and veterinary departments as per the action plan within the infected zone. Another government notification said the epicenter of the outbreak is the poultry unit of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)branch Imphal and an areas within a radius of 1 to 10 kms have been declared as infected and surveillance zones. Sources said that some chickens had died at ICAR poutry unit on April 6. Fluid samples were sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal on April 16. The report was officially sent on April 18 by Dr Dewakar D Kulkarni who is the acting director of the institute and informed state the Veterinary director on phone. The state Veterinary officials suspected that the source of the outbreak could be migratory birds as the ICAR branch was located in the heart of Lamphelpat wetlands near Imphal. Incidentally, Manipur had banned the import of chicken and livestock from Myanmar following the outbreak of bird flu in that country recently. Bird flu in domestic and wild birds has been reported in 70 countries since it was first identified in Hong Kong in 1997. It has been confirmed in birds in neighbouring China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. China has confirmed three human cases and two deaths in 2007.