31,000 birds culled at Kila Raipur farm

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 10

Around 31,000 birds have been culled over the past two days after samples from a poultry farm tested positive for bird flu (H5N8 virus) at Kila Raipur. The district administration had declared the area an infected zone and issued orders of culling the birds.

Dr Paramdeep Singh Walia, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry Department, Ludhiana, said there were around 75,000 birds at Suba Singh poultry farm. As many as 12,400 birds were culled today at the farm by a rapid response team of the department, while another 19,200 were culled yesterday. The remaining birds would be culled too, he added.

Earlier, the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal, had confirmed the presence of avian influenza (H5N8 virus) in the samples taken from the poultry farm here.

Meanwhile, the department has set up a control room at the Civil Veterinary Hospital, Kila Raipur, to monitor the operations.

The area within 1 km radius of the poultry farm was declared an infected zone while the 10 km area around it was designated as a surveillance zone.