Culling of poultry birds begins in Tripura #h5n1 #birdflu

Agartala: The culling of bird flu affected poultry began on Friday in five gram panchayats areas of West Tripura district.

The culling began after confirmation of the presence of H5N1 virus in the affected birds from High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal.

"Twelve teams of Rapid Response Squad of Animal Resource Development Department (ARDD) have started culling in 3 km radius area of government-owned Lembucherra poultry farm in the district, about 20 km from here," Director of Animal Resource Department Manoranjan Sarkar said.

He said though exact number of culled chicks and ducks could not be ascertained yet, the people engaged in the operation were asked to visit each house so that no chick orduck is left out of the operation.

All precautionary measures have been made to prevent fresh outbreak of bird flu in the state, Sarkar said adding that the movement of poultry products has been banned in the affected areas.

Tripura witnessed outbreak of avian influenza way back in 2008.

At least 55,000 chicks and ducks were culled at Mohanpur and its adjacent villages of West Tripuhttp://zeenews.india.com/news/north-east/culling-of-poultry-birds-begins-in-tripura_755145.htmlra district.