Uttarakhand forms two-tier committees to tackle bird flu

A day after bird flu cases were confirmed in Uttarakhand, the state government on Tuesday formed a state-level and district-level committees to control the spread of avian influenza.

The announcement was made by the state’s animal husbandry minister Rekha Arya who met senior officials from the department to take stock of the situation.

In the meeting, the minister was apprised that bird flu in the state is under complete control.

“There is no need to be afraid of bird flu, but to be alert and aware. The flu has not been detected in the poultry sector in Uttarakhand. Poultry sector is completely safe in itself. We have formed a state-level and district-level committees to monitor the situation. The state-level committee will be headed by additional chief secretary or commissioner of agricultural produce in the state government and district-level committee will be headed by the district magistrate,” said Arya in the meeting.

Official orders for formation of the committees were issued by R Meenakshi Sundaram, secretary for the animal husbandry department.

The animal husbandry department said it is continuously collecting random samples from poultry farms to monitor bir. A high alert has also been sounded for all poultry farms. Uttarakhand has around 15,000 poultry farms including 500 big farms.

“At present, bird flu has been confirmed only in wild birds. The infection has not been found in any kind of poultry farms in the state Samples of birds that have died in the wild in Garhwal division and Kumaon division, have been taken and sent to IVRI Bareilly for testing, where reports are awaited,” the minister said.

The minister has also instructed officials to conduct a seminar on Thursday for farmers in which scientists or experts would explain how to deal with the situation. She further said that officials should ensure sufficient stock of PPE kits and N95 masks.

Officials from the forest department said that so far over 475 birds have died in Uttarakhand in the last one week. Two bird samples sent to National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal tested positive on Monday.

Since Sunday, over 240 crows have been found dead from Bhandari Bagh in Dehradun district. Apart from this, pigeons, myna, spotted dove and kites were also found dead in different regions.