PUNE: Avian influenza cases and bird deaths in Maharashtra have seen a steady decline in the past few days, with the number of mortalities and positive samples dropping since January 25.
From the 900-1,000-plus deaths recorded from January 13 till January 25, the number of daily mortalities is now down to around 100-300. Maharashtra animal husbandry commissioner Sachindra Pratap Singh told TOI that avian influenza might be receding in the state with the number of crow and other bird mortalities being on a decline during the past four-five days.
“If the same trend continues for several days, we may consider that avian influenza has subsided in Maharashtra. Some ornithologists were also of the view that once the winter migration of birds to India reduces, the incidence of avian influenza will also drop. But more scientific evaluation would be needed to attribute a cause to the sudden dip in the bird mortalities,” said Singh.
A week or so ago, a large number of bird casualties was being reported on several consecutive days. “This is not happening in the past few days,” Singh said.
Another senior animal husbandry department official said sanitization activities in the one kilometre radius of the infected zones had been carried out in 16 districts. “There has been no recurrence of avian influenza cases there,” the official said.
Animal husbandry department data revealed that 142 poultry birds were found dead on Thursday in districts such as Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Latur, Osmanabad and Amravati. Mortalities were also reported in 11 other birds, like heron, sparrow, and parrot. Fifteen crows were found dead.
On Wednesday, the department received results of tests of some samples from the National Institute of High Security Animal Disease, Bhopal.
None of the poultry bird samples tested positive for avian influenza. The positive samples ere that of a peacock from Khandala and an owl from Hangarga. Nanded.