Now, bird flu strikes MP

In Bhopal, HSADL Deputy Director Dr H K Pradhan said that a further 114 samples were being tested from 23 villages around Icchapur. The test results would be known in a few days, he said.

Stressing that not one case of the disease having migrated to humans has so far been reported in the country, the state government said medical teams would be sent to Burhanpur as a precaution. With an alert having been declared, poultry movement has been banned and containment teams have already rushed to the spot.

About 200 veterinary personnel were also sent to the area on Tuesday and a team of three senior doctors from Delhi is headed for Madhya Pradesh as well.

Unlike Navapur, where the flu first surfaced, Burhanpur has few organised poultry farms and, in fact, the poultry population is low across the entire district. With not more than 7,000 poultry in a 10-kilometre radius of Ichhapur, all will be culled and buried. Commissioner Veterinary Services Rajesh Rajora said culling would begin from Wednesday.

Poultry owners will get Rs 40 as compensation for a broiler, Rs 30 for a layer and Rs 10 for a chick. The total poultry population in the state is estimated to be 1.15 crore, 34 per cent of it in areas bordering Maharashtra.

The state government said it was prepared for the eventuality because two neighbouring states had already reported avian influenza. Principal Secretary Ranjana Choudhary said steps taken over the last month ever since the disease was first reported in Navapur would help the government contain the disease.

With no specific source of the disease8217;s migration to Ichhapur as yet identified, the government has said it will undertake an extensive surveillance drive across the three bird flu-affected states in a 200-kilometer radius

of Navapur and Jalgoan in Maharashtra.

8216;8216;We have decided to collect random samples from 38 districts in Maharastra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and to send them for testing so that the disease can be detected before there are any deaths reported among birds,8217;8217; said Upma Chowdary, Joint Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry in New Delhi.

Meanwhile, as of March 25, the Bhopal Lab has tested over 11,700 samples from across the country8212;of these, only the Navapur, Ucchal, Jalgoan and now Burhanpur samples have tested positive for H5N1.

The lab has received about 1,000 poultry samples from Madhya Pradesh, but so far the disease has affected poultry only Burhanpur.