Animal Husbandry department started culling operation at affected poultry farm
Hyderabad: Telangana has registered the first positive case of Birdflu at Neelapatla village in Choutuppal mandal in erstwhile Nalgonda district, top sources in Animal Husbandry department here on Saturday confirmed.
The department restricted entry of people from one kilometer radius from the poultry and culling operation has already been initiated. The bio-safety measures were also started at the farm along with other poultries within one kilometer radius of the affected premises in the village and its surroundings. Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the department would take up disinfection work for the next 15 days at the poultry farms in Neelapatla to prevent the spread of Birdflu.
Following information over sudden death of chicken on a large scale under mysterious circumstances, a team of veterinary doctors inspected the poultry farm owned by a farmer Pasham Shiva and collected samples.
The doctors sent samples to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal. “We received a report from the institute confirming that the samples tested positive for Birdflu,” a source in the epidemiology wing in the Animal Husbandry department in Hyderabad, confirmed. He said efforts were on to know the reasons behind the outbreak of Birdflu in the district.
“We are primarily suspecting that it would have been triggered from the feed supplied to the chicken as poultry owners hire a lorry to supply feed to various farms in the district,” he said.
He further stated that the veterinary doctors could not collect samples from one more poultry at Cherukupally village in Ketepally mandal in Nalgonda as the farm owner Bantu Mahender buried as many as 7,000 dead chickens in an open place a few days ago without consulting officials.
Yet, the department was trying to find out the reasons behind the incident at Mahender’s poultry farm. Sources said the department has collected samples from another farm at Wanaparthy where thousands of chickens died mysteriously. “We collected samples and sent them to the institute in Bhopal. The report is awaited,” another official said.
