Outbreak of bird flu in a poultry farm at Melkera Village in Humnabad Taluk in Bidar district in Karnataka has made the Karnataka Government declare bird flu emergency and it has started culling more than 1.3 lakh birds to prevent the outbreak of avian influenza (H5N1 virus) to other farms.
The State Government has also instructed poultry farmers to take precautionary measures to prevent infaection of chicken with H5N1 virus. In the case of viral infection, scientists have advised farm owners not to sell or move any of the birds/eggs and material out of farm. They have been instructed to adopt adequate bio-security measures.
Minister for Animal Husbandry A Manju, said that the outbreak of bird flu was found in the farm owned by Ramesh Gupta in Bidar district and the state government would provide compensation to the farmer immediately after culling. "It was decided to cull all poultry birds within one-km radius of the infected farm" he added.
"We received information on May 5 that at in poultry farm about 20,000 chickens have died. To identify the disease we had sent the samples to a laboratory in Bhopal, the report confirms the cause is due to H5N1 virus" he said.
According to Minister a team of doctors and scientists of the Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary, Biologicals, Bengaluru, visited the private farm in Bidar and collected the samples for testing. The samples were tested at National Institute High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal, and samples tested positive for H5N1. He also asked the people not get panicky as government has taken all measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
According to Minister poultry farms located within a 1 km radius, all the birds will also be culled and other farms within a 3 km radius will be carefully monitored to prevent the disease spreading further.
According to Animal Husbandry department records Karnataka has around 7,000 poultry farms, which are both layers and broilers varieties. The farms have stock of more than five crore birds. The state's daily egg production is about 1.2 crore. A team of experts would oversee the process of culling and preventive measures being taken to contain its spread.