Punjab would start the process of culling more than 50,000 birds in the two affected poultry farms of Dera Bassi in Mohali district on Friday in a bid to stop the spread of the avian flu. For the purpose, 25 teams — comprising five members each — would conduct the culling operation in the Alfa and Royal Poultry Farms in Dera Bassi’s Behra village.
“Culling, which is the mainstay of stopping the spread of the virus, will commence in the two affected poultry farms of Dera Bassi on January 22,” said Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan.
“Culling of over 50,000 birds is expected to be undertaken at the affected epicenter. Twenty-five teams would conduct the culling operation in the two poultry farms in Dera Bassi,” he said, adding that requisite safety gear, including the PPE kits and face shields as well as the JCB machines, have been provided to the culling teams and adequate quarantine arrangement is in place.
The poultry birds would be buried after culling.
The Deputy Commissioner said that the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal’s confirmation of bird flu strain in the tissue samples forwarded for ascertaining the cause of the death of the birds.
Meanwhile, the District Administration has declared “the 10 kilometer radius of the affected epicenter the containment area to put a tab on any commercial poultry farming activity being conducted therein”.
“Surveillance and sampling has been stepped up and two Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) have been deployed to keep a tab on any deaths of birds (crows, migratory or wild birds) in the district,” said Dayalan.
The Deputy Commissioner added that the virus involved in the Avian influenza is zoonotic, the pathogen can be transmitted from animals to humans as per preliminary reports. “So, to detect symptoms of plausible infection in humans, the bird handlers in the affected poultry farms would be examined by the doctors for detection of symptoms, if any,” he added.
Notably, the reports of samples taken from two poultry farms at Behra village in Dera Bassi were received from the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases lab in Bhopal on Wednesday. The samples had tested positive for H5N8 strain.
As per the Government of India guidelines, the birds of poultry farms located within one km of an infected farm have to be culled. The official maintained that there was no other poultry farm other than these two within one km radius.