Fears of an outbreak of avian flu gripped the city on Tuesday with at least one confirmed case of a chicken infected with the H5N1 virus reported at Dasarahalli near Yelahanka in north Bengaluru. This comes after a gap of more than five years with bird flu last reported in the city in October 2012.
Following the confirmation, all chicken stalls in Dasarahalli were immediately shut down to prevent spread of the virus, and measures are being taken to cull chicken in the area, said BBMP commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad.
Animal husbandry officials have started screening poultry in Shivaji Nagar and K.R. Market — the prime wholesale markets for chicken — as a precautionary measure. So far, there have been no positive cases.
A few days ago, a retail outlet in Dasarahalli reported the death of all its chicken. Officials immediately collected samples and sent them to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal, of which only one bird tested positive for the H5N1 virus. “The reports arrived on Tuesday afternoon, following which measures to contain the virus were put in place,” said Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, Health, BBMP.
Sources said that the retail outlet which reported the deaths had sourced the chicken from Tamil Nadu.
“We are trying to ascertain the exact place from where the chicken were brought,” a senior civic official said.
The government has issued a notification declaring an area of one kilometre radius from the chicken centre at Bhuvaneshwari Nagar in Dasarahalli as an infected zone, and the area within a 10-km radius as surveillance zone.