72 birds found dead in city since January 5, says Mumbai civic body

In the last six days, the disaster control management cell of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received 32 complaints of 72 death of birds between January 5-11, amid the outbreak of bird flu in the city

In the last six days, the disaster control management cell of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received 32 complaints of 72 death of birds between January 5-11, amid the outbreak of bird flu in the city.

Two Indian pond heron birds found dead at Gauripada in Kalyan (West) on Tuesday afternoon. (Rishikesh Choudhary/ HT)

However, not all of these deaths are due to bird flu. In Mumbai, till now at least nine deaths of crows have been reported due to bird flu.

According to BMC officials, till now deaths have been only reported in crows so far.

An BMC’s disaster management cell said, “We have received 32 complaints between January 5 and 11, of which, death of 72 birds was reported. As per the protocol, we inform the animal husbandry department and local ward offices of BMC.”

The BMC official added, “Till now, whatever deaths have been reported are of crows or migratory birds. Bird flu reports for only two dead birds have been tested positive yet.”

On Tuesday, a day after BMC appealed to citizens to report about deaths of birds on its helpline 1916, the BMC got over 50 calls till evening.

The BMC, starting Tuesday, has undertaken a drive to visit all the poultry retailers and shopkeepers to check on cleanliness and hygiene being followed by them. Manish Valanju, assistant municipal commissioner of BMC’s L ward that covers Kurla area said, “Our market department is visiting shops of chicken and mutton, and inspecting for cleanliness and hygiene.”

Valanju added, “We are informing shop owners to report deaths to us, in case of any deaths reported in their shops. We are also attending calls from citizens about bird deaths. On Tuesday, we have attended around five calls for the L ward area.”

Further, the BMC in a circular issued on Monday had directed its officials that before burying dead birds, they will have to inform rapid response team formed by the state government to tackle the spread of bird flu.

The BMC is also going to conduct citizen awareness programmes on how the spread of bird flu takes place. This comes in the backdrop of retailers selling eggs and chicken, citing that their business has gone down owing to fear of bird flu.

Vasant Kumar Shetty, president of Poultry Farmers and Breeders Association in Maharashtra said, “We have witnessed a drop of 10-15% in sales of chicken in the last few days. However, from time to time we as an association and the government have promoted that it is safe to consume chicken if it is cooked properly. We expect the demand to gather pace in another 10 days.”

Shetty added, “I feel that from next week the fear will die down, and people will come back to eating chicken, considering it is a very affordable form of non-vegetarian food. There will be few who have migrated to mutton for now, but that will not be feasible for a longer period, owing to its cost.”

Meanwhile, the animal husbandry department of the state in a statement issued on Monday had appealed citizens to not spread unscientific information about bird flu adding that it is safe to consume eggs and poultry meat if cooked above 70 degree Celsius for 30 minutes.