3,000 poultry culled in Tripura; birdflu contained within farm

At least 3,000 poultry, including chickens and ducks, were today culled in Tripura to control further spread of the birdflu from a government duck farm in capital Agartala.
     
"Over 2,000 chicken and ducks have died in the area since February 3 last and blood samples of some of them, which were sent to Regional Animal Diseases Diagnostic Centre in Kolkata tested positive for H5N1 virus," state Animal Resource minister Aghor Debbarma told newsmen in Agartala.
     
The administration has also banned selling of any poultry in and around R K Nagar Poultry, 6km from the capital town.
     
Avian influenza was first reported from Kamalpur, a sub-division in Dhalai district bordering Moulavi bazar district of neighbouring Bangladesh in April 2008.
     
Stepping into the problem, the centre directed the state to cull the entire poultry within a radius of 3 km of the focus of infection viz. State Duck Breeding Farm, RK Nagar, Agartala, an official statement said in Delhi.
     
The state government has been asked to furnish a daily report on the control and containment operations to the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries in the ministry of agriculture.
     
The centre has advised the state to ban movement of poultry and its products in the infected area/closure of poultry and egg markets and shops within a radius of 10km from the infected site, ban on movement of farm personnel, restricting access to wild and stray birds and restricting access to the infected premises.
     
As regards compensation for loss of poultry on account of culling and destruction of birds, the Union government has told the state that it would be shared between the two on 50:50 basis.