Around 150 ducks were culled in Hisar district of Haryana today to prevent spread of bird flu after samples of dead birds from a local resort tested positive for Avian influenza.
The Centre also asked the Haryana government to take steps to control bird flu after the samples of ducks sent from a Haryana Tourism resort at Hisar were found positive.
"Around 150 ducks have been culled today. Earlier 11 birds were found dead at lake and samples of dead birds were tested positive for bird flu," a district official said.
"We are on high alert," Hisar Deputy Commissioner Nikhil Gajraj said and added that all precautionary measures are being taken to prevent spread of virus.
Entry to the Blue Bird tourist complex has been restricted, he said further.
Meanwhile, the Union Agriculture Ministry in a statement said, "The samples sent from domestic ducks at Blue Bird Restaurant of Haryana Tourism in Hisar, Haryana, to NIHSAD, Bhopal on November 2 have been found positive for H5N8 AI virus.
"The state government of Haryana has been requested to initiate control and containment operation as per action plan."
The 'Action Plan of Animal Husbandry for Preparedness, Control and Containment of Avian Influenza' was released by the Centre in 2015.
Giving an update on bird flu situation in various parts of the country, the Centre said that the control and containment operations are being carried out at various epicenters in Kerala.
"A video conferencing was conducted by this Department on November 2 to review the situation in Kerala and preparedness of the neighboring states namely Karnataka and Tamil Nadu," the statement said.
There is no further report of mortality from any part of Punjab where post operation surveillance is going on.
In Delhi, the Centre said that six ducks at Madipur Lake reportedly died on November 3.
"The samples have been collected by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Delhi. There is no report of mortality from any other part of Delhi. The Delhi Government has carried out disinfection process at all the affected sites as per Action Plan on Avian Influenza," the statement said.
There is no further report of mortality from Gwalior or any other part of Madhya Pradesh too.
Taking no chances, the authorities decided to cull all
birds kept in the centre, as they shared the same enclosure.
"There were high chances of infection being spread in other healthy birds as they were kept with infected birds. Though the result of samples collected from those 550 newly arrived birds is still awaited, we had to cull all the birds," said Patel.
Meanwhile, Gujarat Agriculture Minister Babubhai Bokhiria and Health Minister Shankar Chaudhary called a joint press conference on the issue at Gandhinagar today.
According to Bokhiria, the state government has taken all the precautionary steps to stop bird flu from spreading into humans.
"We have secured the area surrounding the centre by culling around 1,400 birds. Our teams have sprinkled disinfectant powder in various poultry farms located in 10 km area surrounding the centre. The government has taken all the necessary steps to make sure that bird flu does not spread into humans," Bokhiria told reporters.
Chaudhary said the bird flu has not infected any person yet.
"Out of 14 employees working at the centre, no one is found to be infected with the virus. They all are healthy. All the birds which were culled have been buried in a pit by our teams," he said.
