Bird culling: Panchkula admn trims down list of affected farms

Two farms removed from list of five after they were found outside the 1km radius of the ‘infected zone’

Two poultry farms have been removed from the list of five farms falling in the “infected zone”, identified after bird flu was confirmed at two farms in Barwala belt of Panchkula district on January 8.

Police vehicles blocking entry to Siddharth Poultry Farm at Kheri village in Raipur Rani, Panchkula. (Sant Arora/HT)

“The area was measured again and it was found that two farms fall beyond the 1km radius of the infected farms. Hence, culling will not take place there,” deputy commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja said.

After the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal, had confirmed bird flu in samples taken from Siddharth poultry farm, Kheri, and Nature poultry farm, Dandlawar, Ganauli, the Haryana government had announced the area within a kilometre of the two epicentres as “infected zone” and 1-10km as “surveillance zone.”

As such, the Haryana animal husbandry and dairying department had announced culling of 1.66 lakh birds at five affected farms - Siddharth, Narender, Naveen and Sunil in Kheri village and Nature in Dhandalwar, Ganauli.

However, on measuring the area again, Sunil and Naveen farms were found outside the boundary of 1km radius, which leaves one farm – Narender – in the “infected zone”.