More than 8.74 lakh birds have been culled in four states and one union territory so far this year in order to control the spread of bird flu disease in the country, the Parliament was informed today.
There has been no loss of human life so far. The control and containment operations are still going on in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, Minister of State for Agriculture Sudarshan Bhaghat said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
As per the data placed before the Upper House, more than 8.74 lakh birds were culled so far this year.
Out of this, 7.45 lakh undomesticated birds were culled in Kerala alone, while 1.21 lakh birds were culled in Karnataka, Haryana (944 birds) and Punjab (33 birds).
"Surveillance is continuing throughout the country...There has been no loss of human life so far. The farmers are compensated for the forced culling of their birds and destruction of poultry feed and eggs," he said.
The outbreak of avain influenza, also called bird flu, was reported from National Zoological Park in New Delhi, Gandhi Zoological Park in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, Alappuzha and Kottayam districts of Kerala, Rajpura in Patiala district of Punjab, Hissar in Haryana and Bellary district in Karnataka during the October-November period of 2016, he added.
In 2015, total 1.89 lakh birds were culled because of outbreak of avian influenza, the data showed.
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