The Telangana government has decided to cull as many as 1.45 lakh poultry birds after samples tested at a farm on the city’s outskirts confirmed the outbreak of bird flu, caused by H5N1 virus.
The state government has put a ban which will stay for a month in 10 km radius around the village where hundreds of chicken died due to deadly influenza virus.
Following the ban, the poultry industry in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh having about R20,000 crore annual turnover has lost R30 crore worth of birds in just one day after the confirmation of the outbreak.
Speaking to FE, Ranjith Reddy, president, Telangana Poultry Breeders Association, said that the government is willing to share the losses arising out of the culling of birds. “The government has decided to compensate to the tune of R18 crore,” he said.
“We expect the culling of birds to end by tonight or tomorrow,” he said. However, as per the WHO norms, there has to be a ban of up to 30 days to restart the consumption levels, he said. The consumption levels of chicks and eggs, which is very high in Telangana, has come to a standstill including in hotels and educational institutions.
The Telangana poultry industry produces four crore chicks and three crore eggs every day. The state animal husbandry department has started culling over two lakh birds in all the five poultry farms in the village and started dumping them in pits covered with lime as per the protocol. The district collector has declared 18 villages as surveillance zone.
State government officials say that the animal husbandry authorities got the word of infection from the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal confirming ‘positive strong’ infection in all 11 samples within 24 hours of receiving them. The emergency team separated healthy birds from the affected one. “The entire culling process would be completed within 72 hours, so far as many as 1.45 lakh birds are affected,” the officials said.
Meanwhile, HSADL, Bhopal has also confirmed that certain parts of India have been affected by the outbreak of bird flu. According to the reports, the virus has mostly affected the ducks, waterfowls and country birds which freely move around and come in contact with migratory birds.
However, industry players are trying to build faith to restart consumption. Mohan, vice-president, Suguna Foods, said, “We have highly standardised farm management practices. Our farms are in a controlled and bio-secured environment in Tamil Nadu and the possibility of birds contacting migratory ones are remotely impossible.”
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