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Bird flu alert: Random sampling begins in Bokaro, central teams takes stock
Bokaro district animal husbandry officer Manoj Kumar Mani said random sampling was done in adjoining areas including Jaridih, Siwandih, and Chas areas.
RANCHI: A team of the animal husbandry department on Wednesday started random sampling to ascertain possible spread, after confirmed cases of bird flu were reported from a government-run poultry in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district on Tuesday, officials said.
“Two separate central teams from Delhi and Kolkata also arrived in Bokaro to take stock of the ground situation,” said animal husbandry director Chandan Kumar.
“The teams have arrived as per the standard operating procedures. The department is doing random sampling in the radius of 10 kilometres in Bokaro to check for any possible spread. Although no other poultry farm has till now reported anything suspicious,” said Kumar.
Kumar said the prescribed SOPs of the central government have been put in place after the Bhopal-based National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAN) confirmed avian influenza (H5N1), popularly known as bird flu, in the samples sent from the government-run poultry in Lohanchal area in Bokaro.
Bokaro district animal husbandry officer Manoj Kumar Mani said random sampling was done in adjoining areas including Jaridih, Siwandih, and Chas areas. “There was no report of any unusual death of chickens from any other poultry farm or otherwise. Random samples have been taken. We can say anything further only after reports arrive,” he added.
Bokaro district officials said the animal husbandry team from Delhi collected relevant data from the animal husbandry department while the health team from Kolkata gave necessary directions, especially for the handlers of the chickens at the affected poultry farm.
Officials said orders have been issued to all districts to set up control rooms to trace any possible spread.
