Indore:
Over 321 birds including crows, storks, pigeons, Atlantic canarys, kingfishers, etc. have lost their lives due to avian influenza H5N8 commonly known as bird flu in Indore district till Tuesday. The number continues to rise everyday as the spread expands to other species starting from crows.
“Starting from January 10, we have recorded deaths from avian influenza, i.e. bird flu spreading to pigeons and storks rapidly, the biggest fear lies in birds that are more prominent like pigeons, storks and poultry animals,” Dr Pramod Sharma, deputy director of veterinary department, said.
He added that 17 deaths were recorded on Tuesday. Out of which, 10 were crows, 4 were storks and 3 pigeons.
There was a break on seizing of chickens and eggs from shop on Tuesday. So far, over 350 chickens and 7,000 eggs have been seized and destroyed by Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) in the last few days following the detection of avian influenza in poultry animals and ban on their sale.
“For the last four days, IMC has been running a campaign to control the spread of bird flu in poultry animals and hence, seizing and destroying chickens and eggs along with officials from the veterinary department,” Dr Uttam Yadav, officer-in-charge, said.
Due to bird flu , IMC and Veterinary Department are monitoring chicken shops that opened despite the ban and seized poultry.
“More than 350 poultry animals were seized and buried in trenching ground in the last four-five days. Teams are being sent and action will be taken for anyone opening the shops until the ban is lifted,” Yadav said.
He added that there are between 350 and 400 chicken shops in the city and all were reported to be closed on Tuesday.
He said that in some parts of the trenching ground where there is no fear of infection, pits have been dug from JCB, so that the slaughtered poultry can be buried there.
