Bird flu in Kerala: Alappuzha district administration culls 20,330 birds

ALAPPUZHA: Rapid Response Teams (RRT) of Alappuzha district administration on Tuesday culled 20330 birds mainly ducks in the wake of the detection of avian influenza (H5N8) in Kuttanad region.
Alappuzha district collector A Alexander told TOI that they need to cull at least 45,000 birds within the 1-km radius of the four hot spots in Kuttanad and they are making all efforts to complete the culling process by Wednesday.If it is not possible, it will continue in one more day
The nine RRTs on Tuesday culled 7088 birds at Nedumudi, 6236 birds at Thakazhi, 2806 birds at Pallippad and 4200 birds Karuvatta in Alappuzha district till 3.30pm.
At least 28,000 ducks died in the last two weeks in Alappuzha as per the estimate of Animal Husbandry Department(AHD).
On Tuesday, nine RRTs led culling operations and they conducted it at ward 3 in Pallippad, ward 1 in Karuvatta, ward 11 in Thakazhi and ward 12 in Nedumudi in tune with the directions of the union government guidelines. “After RRTs members killed the birds, its carcasses were burnt using firewood, diesel and sugar. They will also sanitise the areas. Besides the culling, surveillance activity is being conducted over a radius up to 10 kilometres from the hotspots,” the collector said.
Soon after the disease confirmed on Monday, the district collector immediately chaired a meeting of the officials concerned and directed them to take all the possible steps as soon a possible to prevent the spread of the disease. This is the third outbreak of avian influenza in Alappuzha in the last seven years.
Kuttanad started to report the death of ducks two weeks ago and the officials of the AHD collected samples from six places in the district. They sent it to the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal, for analysis. Of them, four samples tested positive for bird flu. The health officials said that the H5N8 virus did not usually spread to human beings. However, they warned that if mutations occurs, the virus could be transmitted to human beings.
In 2014, the district faced a serious situation after thousands of ducks became the victims of a highly infectious bird flu outbreak caused by H5N1 virus. The effective intervention of the state government could soon bring the situation under control. After two years, Kuttanad again witnessed for avian influenza caused by the H5N8 virus.
The collector said that they have set up 18 -rapid response team for culling the birds. The team is consisting of a veterinary doctor, two livestock inspectors, two attenders, one each revenue and grama panchayat official, one policeman, two helpers among others.