A total of 94 birds including 63 poultry birds have been found dead due to avian influenza in Maharashtra. The samples are being sent to National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal and Disease Investigation Section, Pune for testing. A total of 20,017 deaths of various birds including parrots, sparrows, Herons and crows have been recorded till date since the outbreak of bird flu on January 8.
The department of animal husbandry has said the daily mortality trend among the birds has been declining for the last eight days.
So far 72,106 poultry birds, 44,686 eggs and 63,339 kg poultry feed have been destroyed from infected zones. The government has delegated powers to all district collectors under the Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Diseases in Animals Act, 2009 to take prescribed preventive measures.
Surveillance work is continued at the places where positive results have been reported in other species of birds excluding poultry. The process of collection of Cloacal and oro-pharyngeal swabs, dropping and serum samples of the birds from the 1-10 km radius area from the infected zones will be initiated after issuing the sanitization certificate.
The local administration has initiated the process of declaration of ‘’Alert Zone’’ in an area of mortality in poultry birds suspected to be dead due to bird flu.
