Reports of bird flu outbreak in Kerala state, Centre sends response team

November 25, 2014 21:15

Two outbreaks of a highly pathogenic bird flu virus has been reported of having broken out at duck farms in the southern state of Kerala, the World Organization for Animal Health on Tuesday.

About 15,000 ducks died of the H5 strain of the disease at a first farm and another 500 died at another, the Paris-based OIE reported on its website, citing data submitted by the Indian ministry of agriculture.

In response, the Centre rushed a team of experts to Kerala to deal with the outbreak of bird flu in parts of the state.

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh told a group of Kerala MPs that a team of experts from the Bangalore regional lab of the Veterinary Institute has been sent to the state hit by H5 avian influenza virus.

Tests on dead samples conducted at the High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory at Bhopal has confirmed avian influenza as the cause of mass death of ducks, following which a red alert has been sounded by Kerala government in Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam districts to restrict movement of poultry and allied products.

The state government has worked out a plan to 1.5 lakh birds, including poultry, in the three affected districts of Alappuzha, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta.

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