Bhubaneswar: Bird flu scare continued to
grip Odisha as more crow deaths were reported even as the
state government continued its culling operation at Keranga
area in Khurda district for the second consecutive day.
"As many as 11,260 fowls were eliminated on Friday in Keranga
area. Besides, chicken from a particular private poultry firm
at Keranga, fowls of small hatcheries were culled today," said
Gopal Tripathy, state government's nodal officer for culling.
While two teams comprising live stock inspectors,
veterinary doctors had been undertaking culling at the private
firms having about 28,000 poultry, local people today
voluntarily offered their fowls, Tripathy said.
The culling operation started yesterday after the state
government was directed by the Centre to kill the infected
fowls following detection of H5N1 virus in some chicken in
Keranga area.
The culling process was being carried in 19 villages
including Keranga with adequate compensation for affected
poultry farmers.
While culling was on in 3 km radius of Keranga,
surveillance work was undertaken in villages within its ten km
radius to detect any possible outbreak of avian influenza,
official sources said.
Meanwhile, Tripathy said that more cases of crow
deaths including from the state capital, was received at the
fisheries and animal resource development department.
Death of about 1263 crows was received from 12
districts, he said.
Though certain serum samples of crows were sent to
laboratory for examination, the state government was yet to
receive any confirmation regarding cause of the crow deaths,
Tripathy said.
PTI
First Published: Friday, January 13, 2012, 22:19