An outbreak of bird flu was confirmed at Vazhuthanam in Haripad municipality on Wednesday.
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District Collector V.R. Krishna Teja said the presence of H5N1 subtype of the Influenza A virus was reported in ducks.
Two farmers, who were raising around 20,000 ducks at Vazhuthanam Padinjare and Vazhuthanam Vadakke paddy polders (both in ward 9 of Haripad municipality), lost around 1,500 birds in the past week. Following the mass death of ducks, the Animal Husbandry Department (AHD) sent samples of dead birds to the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal for analyses, which tested positive for avian influenza.
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Mr. Teja, who chaired a meeting to take stock of the situation, said that measures had been initiated to check the spread of the disease. AHD officials said culling of birds within the 1-km radius of the hotspot would begin once the government issued the notification. "As many as 20,471 birds, mostly ducks, will have to be culled as part of the containment measures. Eight rapid response teams have been constituted and we hope to begin the culling operations on Thursday morning," said an official.
The AHD has sought the assistance of Haripad municipality and Pallippad grama panchayat to carry out the culling and disposal of carcasses as per the standard operating procedure.
The District Collector has issued an order banning the movement of birds to and from within a 1-km radius of the hotspot. Mr. Teja also directed the Health Department to initiate measures to prevent the disease from spreading to humans.
It is the third time in less than two years that bird flu was confirmed in the region. In January 2021, avian flu caused by the H5N8 strain of the Influenza A virus was detected in several places in Kuttanad. Another outbreak of bird flu (H5N1) was confirmed in Thakazhy grama panchayat in Kuttanad in December last year. It later spread to other grama panchayats in the region. Thousands of birds, mostly ducks, had died or were culled due to the outbreaks.