In the wake of bird flu scare, the UT Administration on Sunday collected samples of poultry birds to check whether they are infected with avian influenza H5N1.
As many as 25 samples of poultry birds in villages of Sukhna lake’s periphery were collected by the UT Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department. Nearly 50 blood and fecal samples from a poultry farm in industrial area here was also collected to be sent to Regional Disease Diagnostic laboratory (RDDl), Jalandhar in Punjab. The samples of poultry have been sent to RDDl at Jalandhar and the reports are awaited now, said UT Animal Husbandry Department Joint Director Dr lovelesh Kant Gupta on Sunday. He said that the authorities have already begun surveillance on poultry birds within 10 km radius of the city. The fumigation and sanitation operations has completed at the lake.
A team of experts from Bhopal based National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) will reach Chandigarh on December 23 for environmental sampling of water, both waste and lake water, he added. After a sample of duck that had died at Sukhna lake here was tested positive for bird flu, the UT Administration had culled 90 ducks on December 18 on the island in the middle of the lake. The Central Poultry Development Organisation had already halted all the supplies of eggs as a precautionary measure. The supplies are likely to be restored from Monday. Notably, CPDO supplies hatching eggs to government-owned organisations of nine states including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, besides selling chickens and eggs among public.
As many as 35 geese had died in the past fortnight at the lake, which is close to the administrative hub of Punjab, Haryana and union territory of Chandigarh. The lake will remain restricted to public for a month. After the UT Administration sounded bird flu alert in Chandigarh, the veterinary officers had earlier collected blood, fecal and throat swab samples of migratory birds at the Sukhna lake for laboratory test. The samples were sent to RDDl on Friday.