Native breeds catch bird flu

The detection of fresh cases of bird flu in four villages of Jalgaon district in Maharashtra has lent a new dimension to the avian influenza epidemic.

This is because the affected birds are of native breeds kept by villagers in their backyards and not of poultry farms, as was the case with the earlier outbreak in the neighbouring Nandurbar district.

This has heightened the danger that the flu infection may be present in other areas as well and that more cases may surface in the days to come, poultry experts feel.

Official sources also maintain that the H5N1 viral infection could not have been communicated to these birds from Navapur areas where it was successfully contained and controlled. The virus may have spread simultaneously to Navapur and elsewhere.

"We are not taking any chances. We are being pro-active in spotting bird flu cases in all the possible areas to effectively contain and control the infection there itself," said Animal Husbandry Ministry Joint Secretary Upma Chowdhry.

Going by the official reckoning, the four villages where the infection has been detected have a substantial backyard poultry with a total bird population of about 75,000.

Besides, these villages have a human population of about 21,500, who potentially may have come in contact with the poultry birds.

But the state government has imposed curbs on the movement of poultry birds and people out of this belt without being properly disinfected. All poultry birds in a 10-km radius around four infected sites are proposed to be culled immediately by the state government.

The Rs 32,000-crore poultry industry, severely hit since February-end due to the Navapur epidemic, is a worried lot. The prospects of its revival, which had begun to look up, will again be jeopardised. So will be the prospects of poultry product exports which were likely to touch about Rs 230 crore this year.

"The wholesale prices of poultry meat, which had recovered a bit to Rs 28 a kg on the day of Holi yesterday, have again dropped down to Rs 14 a kg today," said Amit Sachdev, a leading poultry consultant representing Bluecross Consultants.

An awareness campaign was needed to bring home the point that well-cooked chicken meat as well as eggs were safe to eat. This had been ascertained by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as well, he added.

The fresh cases have also confounded the mystery of the original source of infection. "Though migratory birds are believed to have brought this infection to India, but there is no confirmation about this as yet," said officials of the animal husbandry ministry.

Samples have been taken from migratory birds present in that belt for analysis at the Bhopal-based laboratory for the detection of the virus. So far, there has been no confirmed case among the wild birds.

Poultry industry sources are equally at loss to hazard a guess about the origin of this infection. "The information we have been getting shows that there has been no case of H5N1 virus infection among the wild birds in that area," Sachdev said.

He said relatively small poultry farms would be the worst-hit by the current crisis. The big poultry farms had, of course, already taken necessary bio-safety measures to ward off the disease.

Sachdev suggested that bio-safety measures were now needed to be extended to backyard poultry as well. Besides, barring the areas of potential infection, the other tracts should formally be declared as disease-free zones, as done for buffalo meat. This will inspire consumer confidence in poultry products.

The animal husbandry ministry officials said surveillance had been extended to all the districts in the vicinity of Nandurbar and Jalgaon. These 38 districts fall in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. An area with a radius of 100-kms will, thus, come under intense surveillance.

Survey and surveillance plans had also been dispatched to all other states as well, the officials pointed out. The government was paying compensation to poultry farmers for the chicken being destroyed under this campaign, they added.