Following recovery of two dead pigeons, one at the RTO office on Monday and the other near the Ratha Nodal Upper Primary School at Maheshdih on Tuesday, an emergency meeting was held here to review the situation of bird flu. Sundargarh Sub Collector Birsen Pradhan chaired it.
During the meeting, Sub Collector Pradhan directed to conduct an awareness drive and told poultry vendors not to procure poultry birds from outside the district.
The Government run schools were also told not to serve eggs and chickens in the mid day meals (MDM). It was also advised that if any bird and or chicken was spotted lying dead, nobody should touch it and inform it to the authorities.
Meanwhile, it was known that the Veterinary department has begun a drive to administer Ranikhet Disease (RD) vaccines to poultry birds in the district and has sought for about 3 lakh RD vaccines. The Veterinary department has formed 10 team for administering RD vaccines to poultry birds and 1,595 poultry birds were administered RD vaccines till Tuesday in Kuanrmunda, lathikata, Bisra and Nuagaon area.
The department has also sent swab samples of live poultry fowls and one dead poultry bird to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal. The report is awaited.
Significantly, following reports of death of as many as six different birds in IG Park and some cows at CISF campus of Rourkela city, the Veterinary department had collected blood samples of a dead pelican bird and a crow carcass to the Bhopal lab for testing. Both the samples were tested positive for H5N1. The administration had served closure notice of the IG Park at Rourkela following the development.