January 17, 2012

India's Meghalaya culls 3,400 birds on bird flu outbreak

Following the outbreak of the H1N1 virus or bird flu in East Garo Hills district, Meghalaya had culled more than 3,400 fowl which begun last Friday (Jan 13).

"Rapid response teams and medical officers hygienically culled 3,026 fowl until last (Sunday) evening within three kilometres of the epicentre," said district deputy commissioner Pravin Bakshi. He added that 21 villages around the epicentre - a government-owned poultry farm in Williamnagar town - were sanitised as a precautionary measure.

Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory confirmed bird flu at the Williamnagar farm January 11 after testing blood samples. Following confirmation, the district authorities targeted some 24,000 fowls within a 10 kilometre radius of the farm.
 

Till Sunday, the district authorities paid compensation of INR311,975 (US$6,070) to poultry farmers after it enhanced compensation from the New Delhi-specified INR50 (US$0.97) to INR250 (US$4.86) per fowl.