Meghalaya govt initiates measures against bird flu

SHILLONG: In the view of Bird flu which is wreaking havoc in many states in India, the Meghalaya government has prepared a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to prevent the outbreak of the disease.

The Meghalaya Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department are likely to release a set of SOPs and guidelines. The department is also mulling to carry out mass culling of poultry if bird flu breaks out in the state.

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The Centre has alerted the local authorities to raise surveillance on 12 epicentres, where thousands of birds died in the last few days. The Centre has further asked the States to step up containment measures. The Centre has further set up a control room in the national to monitor the situation unfolding and to take stock of the preventive and control measures undertaken by the authorities in State-level. However, no human case relating to bird flu has been reported so far.

Bird flu has been detected in the samples of over 1,700 migratory birds found dead in Himachal Pradesh last week. Himachal has now become the fourth state to report the infection after Rajasthan, Kerala, and Madhya Pradesh.

Bird flu has been declared as a state-specific disaster in Kerala and a high alert has been issued after an outbreak of bird flu was confirmed in certain parts of Kottayam and Alappuzha districts.

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Himachal Principal Chief Conservator of Forests informed that the infection had been confirmed by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute of Bareilly. She added that the administration was waiting for reports from the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal.

In Madhya Pradesh, 376 crows died between December 23 and January 3, India Today reported, citing Animal Husbandry Minister Prem Singh Patel. He said that bird flu was confirmed in samples from Mandsaur and Indore.

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