Bird culling begins in MP village

     Burahanpur (Madhya Pradesh): The culling of chicken started this morning in Ichhapur village of Madhya Pradesh's Burahanpur District, where birds have tested positive to the presence of the Avian Influenza. According to officials, about 96 samples were sent to High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal from 13 talukas of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh after the second outbreak of disease, of which eight samples tested positive.

     Seven confirmed cases have been reported from Maharashtra's Jalgaon District, which also reported the country's second set of infections of H5N1 in poultry earlier this month. The eighth case was confirmed across the border in Ichhapur, about 3-kilometer from Maharashtra border. "Burahanpur sent us seven to eight samples. We tried virus isolation and were able to isolate the virus in only one, after that in the DNA, there is a test -- artificial test, we did that and twice it came out positive," H.L. Pradhan, joint director, High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) said in state capital Bhopal. Pradhan said that the outbreak was expected to spread to Buhranpur as it shared borders with Jalgaon. According to officials, almost 250,000 birds would be culled in Jalagaon and Burahanpur. Control and containment operations have begun in these areas. Birds within a radius of 10 km. from each of the Jalgaon's Varad, Paldhi Khurd, Bhadgaon, Parola, Erandol and Uttaran villages and Ichhapur village in Burahanpur will be culled. Further surveillance of the concerned area is continuing. Hundreds of thousands of chicken have been killed since February and March, when the first two outbreaks were reported in Maharashtra. Although India has tested scores of people in areas where chickens have tested positive for bird flu, it has not affected humans. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 186 people have been found infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu worldwide. Of these, 105 have died so far. Millions of chickens and other birds have been culled in countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.

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