Siwan district ,India-Chickens died of mental bacteria #H5N1 #BIRDFLU

Experts’ report beats flu scare - Chickens died of mental bacteria

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Patna, March 19: The state animal and fish resources department today ruled out bird flu as the reason behind the mass death of chickens in Siwan district in the past fortnight. The confirmation came after the fear of bird flu loomed large across the district following unnatural deaths of several hundred poultry chickens at Jamsikri village under Zeeradei block and at Thepaha under Siwan Sadar block. On March 16, the state animal husbandry directorate had sent a rapid response team to Siwan. After conducting detailed investigation, the team sent a preliminary report with few samples of dead chickens to the directorate. Dr Ajay Kumar, the in-charge (poultry), state animal husbandry directorate, told The Telegraph: “The rapid response team confirmed the death of 85 chickens in a poultry farm with a capacity of 500 chickens at Thepaha and 200 chickens at another poultry farm with a capacity of 1,000 chickens at Jamsikri village. According to the team’s findings, it is almost certain that the deaths occurred because of bacillary white diarrhoea, a serious mental bacterial disease in poultry. This disease does not cause any harm to human beings in case of consumption of infected chickens but it definitely leads to mass mortality in chickens if it spreads.” Dr Ajay added that the samples collected by the rapid response team would be sent to High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal, for further investigation. The directorate has claimed that reports of unnatural deaths of crows from across the state had gone down considerably. “Though reports of death of one or two crows keep on coming, we have not received any report of mass deaths of crows in the past fortnight,” said a senior officer of the state animal and fish resources department.  Earlier, few samples sent from Gaya to High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal, tested negative for H5N1 virus that causes bird flu. Meanwhile, the state government is yet to receive a response from the Bhopal centre with regard to a request for sending a team of experts. “We have not received any response from the Centre with regard to the request made by the state government for sending a team of experts or an SOS team to Bihar for checking the spread of H5N1 in the state,” said the official. H5N1 caused pandemic in crows in the Northeast, Bengal and Jharkhand in the past few months. The Telegraph, in its February 13, 2012 edition, had reported the spurt in mysterious deaths of crows in the state. The health department has issued a statewide alert for civil surgeons to immediately report such cases. On February 27, The Telegraph reported that Gaya was the only district in the state where mortality in crows owing to H5N1 virus was confirmed. CLOSE SHAVE The scare 85 chickens dead in Thepaha under Siwan Sadar block and 200 in Jamsikri village under Zeeradei block in Siwan district over past fortnight The action The state animal husbandry directorate sent a rapid response team to Siwan. After investigation, it submitted a preliminary report along with few samples of dead chickens to the directorate The findings Deaths occurred because of bacillary white diarrhoea, a serious mental bacterial disease in poultry. It does not harm human beings   http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120320/jsp/bihar/story_15269500.jsp