Culling begins at bird flu hotspots in Alappuzha, Kottayam

45,000 to be culled in all in Alappuzha, operations to continue in the next two days

Members of a rapid response team trying to cremate carcasses of culled birds at Karuvatta in Alappuzha on Tuesday

Culling of birds began on Tuesday morning in the wake of the detection of avian influenza (H5N8) in the Kuttanad region.

District Animal Husbandry Officer Santhosh Kumar T.K. said rapid response teams culled 20,330 birds, mostly ducks, in Alappuzha till 3.30 p.m. Mr. Kumar said around 45,000 birds within one km radius of the four hotspots would have to be culled. The culling operations would continue in the next two days.

On Tuesday, culling was carried out at Ward 3 in Pallippad, Ward 1 in Karuvatta, Ward 11 in Thakazhi, and Ward 12 in Nedumudi as per the Centre’s guidelines. After killing the birds, carcasses were burnt using firewood, diesel, and sugar. Rapid response teams will sanitise the areas after the completion of the culling process. In addition to culling, surveillance activity is being carried out over a radius up to 10 km from the hotspots.

Director of Animal Husbandry K.M. Dileep, who visited Alappuzha, said the disease had not spread to other farms in the region and the situation was under control.

Authorities had collected samples from six places in the district following the mass death of ducks in December and sent it to the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal, for analysis. Four samples tested positive for bird flu. According to the Animal Husbandry Department, around 28,000 ducks died in the last two weeks in Alappuzha.

Meanwhile, the Health Department has launched a survey and awareness campaign in and around the infected areas in the district. People are being checked for fever and other ailments.

Officials said health teams visited 657 houses at Nedumudi, Thakazhi, Pallippad, and Karuvatta on Tuesday. The teams screened 66 duck farmers in the region.

Caution urged

The department has urged the people to maintain caution in view of the outbreak. Officials said the H5N8 virus did not usually infect human beings. However, mutations might occur and the virus could be transmitted to human beings.

This is the third outbreak of avian influenza in the region in the past seven years.

The Animal Husbandry Department has submitted a recommendation to the government for declaration of the H5N8 outbreak in Alappuzha and Kottayam as a State-specific disaster.