19 white ibis carcasses found in Vadodara

The forest department and the animal husbandry department of the Vadodara administration found carcasses of 19 native white ibis near a pond in Dhabasa village in Padra taluka on Thursday, setting off fears of Avian flu again. Samples of five birds have been dispatched to the Diagnostic Laboratory of the Animal Disease Investigation Section in Pune, Maharashtra.

On Thursday morning, the villagers of Dhabasa raised an alarm after 19 white ibis were found dead near the periphery of the pond. The officials of the district animal husbandry department and forest reached the spot and cleared the carcasses as well as collected samples of the birds for investigation.

Dr Prakash Darji, animal husbandry officer for Vadodara, told this newspaper, “We have collected samples of the birds and it is being physically taken to the Pune laboratory of the animal disease investigation section. This is because there is a lot of rush for testing in the Bhopal-based National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases laboratory. We will receive the report on the H5N8 virus within 48 hours.”

Vadodara reported the outbreak of Avian flu on January 10 when close to 25 crows were found dead in Vasantpura in Savli taluka of the district. A few days later about 30 pigeons died at once in Kia village in Karjan taluka while two mortalities were reported among peacocks in the city. However, only three samples of the crows from Vasantpura had tested positive for the Avian flu.