US-funded labs to tackle bird flu

The laboratories would be set up at Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune, ICMR Director General NK Ganguly said.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is setting up four US funded Bio Safety level-three Laboratories (BSL-3) to tackle any outbreak of the avian flu.

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"The laboratories would be set up at Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune", ICMR Director General Professor NK Ganguly said.

Stating that it was intended to make the centres functional within the current financial year, he said an international consultancy firm has been entrusted with the task of setting up the centres at a cost ranging between Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore.

He said that one such centre was already operative in the central zone at Bhopal.

The one at Pune would be largest one, he said, and added that Tamil Nadu had been chosen for having a centre for the South as most poultry in the region was produced in the state.

The Chennai laboratory would be located at the Tuberculosis Research Centre (TRC).

The council, he said, has established an ICMR School of Public Health at suburban Ambattur, which will offer a two-year PG course in epidemiology.

It has a hostel of international standards, a guest house and a training centre. The ICMR had signed a MOU with Boston University and another American University for providing specialised training, he said.

Ganguly said the council had also established a Rural Health and Research Training Centre at nearby Tiruvallur, with an initial investment of Rs 10 crore.