After Thane, bird flu spreads in Palghar district, 456 poultry birds culled

Days after bird flu cases were detected in the Thane district, the infection has surfaced in the adjoining Palghar district.

The National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases Laboratory, Bhopal, in its report, has said that results of samples of poultry, turkey and quails -- taken from Agashi and Vatar in Vasai taluka -- have been found positive for HSN1 strain. So far, 456 poultry birds have been culled in the said area.

The Palghar district collector has declared an "infected zone" between 0 and 1 km of the epicentre and enforced prescribed containment measures, as per the Control and Containment of Bird Flu Revised Action Plan, 2021.

According to a department of animal husbandry officer, a team of experts from the Disease Investigation section of the Commissionerate of Animal Husbandry, Pune, has been deputed for supervising and monitoring the containment measures undertaken at the said areas.

The commissionerate has also issued instructions to keep the field machinery on alert and be vigilant to any suspicious deaths of birds.

Further, the commissionerate has appealed to the poultry farm owners and the general public to intimate mortality of crows, parrots, herons, turkeys, quails or migratory birds in any village; or, for that matter, any unusual mortality of poultry birds in commercial farms and backyard poultry, to the nearest veterinary dispensary.

As reported by the Free Press Journal, the Department of Animal Husbandry and the commissionerate on Friday sounded an alert across Maharashtra after 300 poultry birds and nine ducks died of bird flu at Shahapur in Thane district.

The administration on Friday also culled 23,428 chickens and destroyed 1,600 eggs and 3,800 kg of feed in a 1-km radius of the farm.