Confident villager won’t hide his 100 chickens
TUMPAT: Mohd Ashraf Che Hussin has been rearing more than 100 chickens at his home in Kampung Teliar here, but the recent outbreak of the H5N1 avian flu virus in Kelantan doesn’t worry him.
The 32-year-old computer technician said news of birds being culled by the Veterinary Department would not prompt him to hide any of his chickens, which were of the ayam serama variety.
“I will never relocate my ayam serama as I’m confident they are disease-free.
“The avian flu is believed to have started from ayam kampung not from ayam serama, and my village is not in the high-risk area for the virus,” he said.
Ashraf, however, said news of the virus that spread rapidly to other districts forced him to temporarily stop taking part in any ayam serama contest.
The Veterinary Department said no new H5N1 affected area was detected in Kelantan as of yesterday. The locations remained at 28. However, the number of birds culled by the department rose to 31,353 and 12,267 eggs were destroyed as of yesterday compared with 30,927 birds and 11,804 eggs on Saturday.
The department would continue monitoring the situation and cull birds found within a 1km radius from the 28 locations affected by the virus.