Search on to trace left-out poultry

PARADIP: Jagatsinghpur district administration on Saturday launched a two-day combing operation in bird flu affected areas of Paradip to trace left out poultry for culling.Sources said though culling of chicken continued in the port town for several days following detection of H5N1 avian flu there, slum dwellers reportedly kept their hens and domestic birds hiding to avoid culling and fearing loss.

While the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries department had issued a notification declaring 1-10 km radius of Sandhkuda and Badapadia areas as 'surveillance zone' and 1 km around the chicken centre as 'infected zone', the impact of the ban is being checked by the authorities. "During combing operation, household search is being conducted in the affected areas and if we find owners hiding poultry, they will not be entitled to  compensation," source added.

Slum dwellers alleged that several poultry farmers whose birds have been culled are yet to get compensation. As a result, other farmers who eke out their livelihood by poultry farming did not cooperate with the rapid response team during the culling operation, they said.  Collector Sachidananda Sahoo said the massive culling operation has been completed in bird flu affected Sandhkuda and Badapadia areas. From Saturday, two teams of Veterinary department were engaged in the combing operation to cull the left out birds.

At least 30 birds, which were kept hidden by slum dwellers, have been culled, while 50 eggs and 2 kg poultry feeds were destroyed on Saturday, he added.So far, 1,813 birds have been culled, 2,109 eggs and 62 kg poultry feeds destroyed. After the end of the combing operation, sanitation and disinfection programme will be launched in bird flu affected areas, he said.

Meanwhile, the department has collected more than 700 samples of live birds in different areas of Kujang, Erasama and Paradip and sent those to Animal Disease Research Institute (ADRI), Fulanakhara, Cuttack and Bhopal to check any suspected case of bird flu.