Three months after last culling, India ready to apply for bird flu-free tag, revive poultry trade

August 6 is exactly three months from the day the culling operations ended in Jalgaon, which reported India’s last outbreak of avian influenza on April 18.

The application to the World Organisation for Animal Health, OIE, is the first step towards attaining bird flu-free status.

According to the protocol laid down by the OIE, the country has to establish that there has been no fresh outbreak for a minimum of three months from the last detected case. It also has to convince OIE on an efficient system of sampling and surveillance.

On the numbers front, India is confident that it will not be faulted—the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal has tested 64,000 samples from February and lakhs of birds killed in the 10-km radius of the detected case. The last batch of samples remain to be tested before India moves its application.

‘‘We have tested one of the largest numbers of samples following the outbreak. This data will help us establish our case better,’’ said H K Pradhan, joint director of the laboratory in Bhopal.

To ensure that all holes are plugged, the Ministry of Agriculture organised a one-day conference with all the states to fine-tune the sampling system. Though samples from the area where the outbreak has occurred are the most important ones, those from other parts of the country are to be routinely tested. For example, Orissa and Jharkhand have not sent a single sample to the lab.

Though the consumption of poultry and meat products within the country is inching back to normalcy, the international trade is severely affected. India exports 40 containers containing 4 lakh eggs, mostly to the Middle-East. ‘‘We have seen the case of Thailand where the trade is not yet revived one year after they had the outbreak. We have to work hard in convincing the importing countries,’’ said Amit Sachdeva, consultant to the poultry industry.

The government has started its assurance exercise. A Central team along with representatives from Tamil Nadu poultry industry visited Muscat and Dubai earlier this month. Though the bulk of the trade is from Tamil Nadu, miles away from Navapura and Jalgaon, these countries were quick to say no to any trade with India post-February.