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Journalism of Courage
Four months after the outbreak of bird flu in Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed an indigenous vaccine against the deadly disease.
This was announced by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar at the 77th annual meeting of ICAR today.
Immediately after the outbreak of bird flu in February, which resulted in the death of thousands of birds and culling of more than 10 lakh fowl, the ICAR decided to develop a vaccine and allocated Rs 8 crore for it, an ICAR release said.
The Bhopal-based high security animal disease laboratory produced the vaccine under the guidance of ICAR in a record four months time, it said. Till now, India was importing the vaccine.
‘‘Viral disease such as Avian Influenza does not recognise boundaries and the development of indigenous vaccine would go a long way in tackling bird flu effectively. Since the disease can recur, further research would focus on developing another type of vaccine,’’ the release quoted Director General of ICAR Mangala Rai as saying.
Pawar, president of the ICAR Society, told members that the National Agricultural Innovation Project, being launched this month with World Bank assistance envisaging investment of over Rs 1,150 crore, would help hike farmers’ income and ensure livelihood security.
