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State govt: Bird flu threat “depleting” in Maharashtra
The Maharashtra animal husbandry department is riding high on confidence after depleting threat of the bird flu outbreak in the state
The Maharashtra animal husbandry department is riding high on confidence after depleting threat of the bird flu outbreak in the state.
The department has reported declining mortality rate among birds and the absence of recurrence of virus (H1N1 or H1N8).
“The trend which we have observed in the last eight days gives us high confidence that the bird flu threat is declining. If the same trend continues for the next one week then we will be able to say the threat is negligible,” said Sachindra Pratap Singh, state animal husbandry commissioner.
On February 1, the deaths of only 94 birds were recorded in the state. It is the lowest number of deaths since bird flu cases began on January 8.
“The mortality rate has gone down across the state and the best part is that whichever place we declared as an ‘infected zone’ and prescribed preventive measures, there wasn’t a case of recurrence of the virus which is a positive sign,” added Singh.
The mortality rate among birds was highest on January 19 when 4,479 birds were found dead across the state. The second highest number of mortalities was on January 23 when 1,804 birds were found dead. On other days since the bird flu outbreak in the state (January 8), the number of bird deaths were below 1,500. On Monday, February 1 only 94 deaths of birds were recorded in the state.
Until Monday, a total of 19,923 bird deaths were recorded in the state.
In Pune district, bird flu cases were found in Boribel village Daund; Nande village Mulshi and Gajunje village Maval.
“After taking preventive measures no unnatural bird deaths have occurred in Pune district,” informed an official who looks after Pune district bird flu cases.
The cafes around the city have also observed a surge in chicken orders in the last one week compared to the last 15 days.
“More people are asking for chicken when we compare it to the second week of January. Still the orders are not coming like it used to come normally but there is an improvement, and we accept it will get normal,” said Abbas Ali, manager, Good luck café.
