CENTRE, STATES STEP UP EFFORTS TO CONTROL BIRD FLU OUTBREAK

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/DHARAMSHALA/JAIPUR/BHOPAL/ LUCKNOW: The Centre and the state governments on Wednesday stepped up their efforts to control the spread of bird flu, or Avian Influenza, in six states even as officials said there are no ways to prevent death of the inflected birds.

So far, close to 26,000 birds -ducks in Kerala, migratory birds in Himachal Pradesh, and crows in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand -- have been reported carrying the flu. Around 400,000 chickens have died in Panchkula district of Haryana in the past 20 days.

Dr Jasjeet Kaur, civil surgeon, Panchkula, said six teams have been sent to worst hit Barwala belt in Haryana to screen poultry farm workers for avian influenza. Barwala belt is considered Asia’s second largest poultry belt, with over 7.7 million poultry birds in 110 poultry farms. It employs over 15,000 workers, officials said.

The Union health ministry has deployed multi-displinary teams to Kerala and Haryana, were a large number of poultry birds have died in the past week.

The health ministry teams would also recommend measures to control the spread the virus, officials said.

Kerala animal husbandry minister K Raju on Wednesday camped in Alapuzha, the worst affected district, to monitor the ground situation. Over 69,000 birds were culled in the districts of Alappuzha and Kottayam to contain the H5N8 strain of bird flu, he said.

The Madhya Pradesh government has banned transportation of poultry from other states to check the spread of bird flu in the state, officials said.