The Telangana Government on Tuesday has set out to cull as many as 1.45 lakh poultry birds after samples tested at a farm on the city’s outskirts identified H5N1 Avian Influenza outbreak.
The site of infection is V. Srinivas Reddy Poultry Farm’s unit III at Thoroor village of Hayatnagar mandal in Ranga Reddy district. Animal husbandry authorities got word of infection from the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal on Monday, which confirmed ‘positive strong’ infection in all 11 samples within 24 hours of receiving them. On Tuesday, nearly 300 people were deployed to cull birds within one kilometre of infection site.
“The culling exercise will go on for three to five days as we have pressed several teams into the job. All precautions including administration of preventive medication Tamiflu for staff handling the birds are being taken,” said Y. Thirupathaiah, additional director for Animal Husbandry in Telangana.
He further said that surrounding districts and States too have been alerted about the outbreak.
Though the culling exercise began Tuesday, the government is in the process of acquiring adequate gear including protective clothing as such a massive culling exercise was never undertaken either in Telangana or Andhra Pradesh.
In-charge joint director of HSADL D.D. Kulkarni faulted the poultry industry on various counts for not checking the outbreaks.
