Sale of chicken, eggs banned in parts of Mysuru city due to bird flu

Health

Officials in Karnataka added there is no reason to panic and the cases are sporadic in nature.

Soumya Chatterjee

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Amidst coronavirus pandemic in India, Karnataka government officials said bird flu has been detected in two districts: Mysuru and Davangere (central Karnataka). Samples of dead birds from Bengaluru have been tested negative.  In the neighbouring state of Kerala, there has been wide-scale culling of poultry birds in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts to contain the spread of the disease. However, officials in Karnataka said there is no reason to panic and the cases are sporadic in nature. Further, in most cases, there is no harm to human beings and the influenza spreads only from bird to bird.  Meanwhile, poultry farms and sellers are staring at a loss. With existing rumours on the spread of coronavirus, the price of chicken has reduced and now with news of bird flu, prices are expected to drop further. Birds to be culled in Mysuru, Davanagere Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Sankar of Mysuru said one of the cases was detected from a back house poultry farm in Kumbarakoppal area of Mysuru city and another, a wild bird at a public burial ground near this house.  “Even though it is a sporadic incident and other birds owned by the same household were healthy, we have started culling all domestic birds (fowl or pets) within 1 km radius following the central government’s standard operating procedure,The owners are also cooperating with us. We are following proper burial and related sanitisation process. There will be compensation for every bird culled,” said the Deputy Commissioner.  All poultry shops in the outer 10 km radius, too, have been shut down temporarily. “So there won’t be any sale of eggs or poultry meat,” he added.  READ: Another coronavirus case in Bengaluru: 67-yr-old, who returned from Dubai, tests positive Similar steps have been taken in Davangere district after a farm in Harihara taluk confirmed a positive case of bird flu. All birds are being culled in the 1 km radius area. Bhaskar Naik, Deputy Director, Davanegere said, “We have stopped the sale of chicken and eggs in the 10 km area surrounding the epicentre. We will closely follow the developments.” No positive case in Bengaluru According to a senior official in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s Veterinary Department, “In the recent weeks, there were two-three cases of death of cranes and crows, which prompted us to reach out to the Department of Animal Husbandry of the state government as we don’t have the required expertise.” Speaking to TNM, KT Parameshwar, Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences Department, said, “We had already tested the samples from Bengaluru and it has tested negative. This is a regular exercise every month, where we send a few samples from different areas in the state to NIHSAD  (National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases) lab in Bhopal. With more frequent cases of bird deaths, we sent more samples than usual.” 

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