Minister 145;always146; suspected it was flu

The infectious, viral Ranikhet, also known as New Castle disease, can kill poultry of all ages. 8220;And, though the highly pathogenic form of bird flu spreads rapidly as well, it is difficult to detect initially,8221; said A V Mishra, director of the National Institute of Virology Pune. 8220;Therefore, we suspected it to be Ranikhet. Any country will take time to detect bird flu.8221;

In Navapur, NIV deputy director N S Wairagkar refused comment on the Ranikhet diagnosis. Experts are raising questions. 8220;Though Ranikhet is common, the state should have acted quicker when there were chances of bird flu. Why did they took so long to find out?8221; asked Asad Rahmani, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society, BNHS which recently started watching large, wild bird populations in wetlands every fortnight to track disease outbreaks.8221;