Infected poultry culled as govt issues norms

LUCKNOW : The Pilibhit district administration on Friday carried out culling of poultry birds infected with avian influenza (bird flu) at a local poultry farm, even as the government issued detailed guidelines for culling and disposal of birds’ carcass.

Just a few days ago some infected birds were culled in the Kanpur zoo.

The administration ordered the culling after taking into consideration various aspects of the issue.

“Around 50 poultry birds had to be culled in a farmhouse in Sherpur area of the district after samples collected from there were found to be positive for bird flu,” district magistrate, Pilibhit, Pulkit Khare told the HT over phone.

He said 200-250 samples were taken from different places in the district and all other samples were found negative. He said the culling was carried out in keeping with the government’s directions.

“Ours is a district where migratory birds also come in large numbers. We are keeping a close watch on the situation,” he said.

Director, animal husbandry, RP Singh said this was the second instance of culling in the state after the outbreak of bird flu early this week. “Earlier, birds were culled at Kanpur zoo,” he said.

The government has appointed the animal husbandry department as the nodal body for tackling bird flu.

According to Singh, samples of birds were being collected and tested every day but so far positive cases were reported only from Kanpur zoo and a poultry farm in Pilibhit.

“We put the infected birds in polybags in which they die. After that the dead birds are buried deep in the ground,” sources explained.

The government has asked the Public Works Department (PWD) to make arrangements for earth digging, jetting-cumsuction, fogger and spraying machines and draw out maps for culling in infected areas and

also barricade the culling process and surveillance zones.

The health department has been told to ensure availability of adequate number of isolation wards, PPE kits, face masks and tamiflu capsules for staff engaged in the culling exercise while the revenue department will prepare maps for culling and also identify land for disposal of birds’ carcasses.

Guidelines issued by chief secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari on Thursday asked the home department to ensure implementation of the animal husbandry department’s order on declaration of UP as a controlled area and ban on import of live birds from other states.

The forest department has been asked to carry out sanitisation of bird sanctuaries, zoos etc every day while it will be the responsibility of the panchayati raj department to carry out cleaning in the infected areas and report cases of dead birds to district-level control rooms.

Besides, separate guidelines have been issued to DMs also.