A bird flu outbreak reported at two places in Kerala’s Alappuzha on Thursday. The outbreak was confirmed in ducks raised in an area of ward 1 of Edathva Grama Panchayat and another area in ward 3 of Cheruthana Grama Panchayat.
Samples from ducks displaying symptoms of bird flu were sent to a lab in Bhopal for testing and the results confirmed the presence of avian influenza (H5N1), according to a district administration official.
Alappuzha District Animal Husbandry officer Sajeev Kumar K.R. told The Hindu that the presence of the H5N1 subtype of the Influenza A virus has been reported in ducks at Edathua and Cheruthana in Kuttanad region.
Abraham Ouseph at Edathua, who was raising 7,500 ducks, had lost 3,000 birds since April 12. Likewise, Raghunathan Chirayil and Devarajan T., who were raising 2,000 and 15,000 ducks at Cheruthana, lost 238 and 171 birds respectively, according to the report by The Hindu.
In this situation, according to the action plan of the Government of India, a meeting chaired by the District Collector decided to initiate the process of killing and destroying (culling) domestic birds within a radius of one kilometer from the epicenter.
A Rapid Action Force will be formed and related preparations will be completed by the Animal Welfare Department as soon as possible, the official said. The district administration said there is no need to panic unnecessarily as there is no possibility of the disease transmitting to humans.
With inputs from PTI.
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Bird flu outbreak reported in ducks at two places in Kerala’s Alappuzha
