Three days ago, Murumba village, Maharashtra which is about 500 km from state capital Mumbai became the epicentre of bird-flu as 800 chickens were found dead and Maharashtra’s National Laboratory have confirmed the cause of death to be the bird flu.
“Dead crow samples from a place in Beed have been found positive for H5N8. Both H5N1 and H5N8 are types of avian influenza. Culling of all birds will now be undertaken up to a 1km radius of the infected zone in Parbhani where the poultry samples were found positive. However, only surveillance will be continued in Mumbai, Ghodbunder, Dapoli and Beed,” Maharashtra animal husbandry commissioner Sachindra Pratap Singh said. Deepak Mugalikar, collector of Parbhani district said that culling of 8000 hens has been ordered in the village concerned.
While Maharashtra happens to be the eighth state to report the outbreak of avian influenza Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has called for an urgent meeting to review the outbreak of bird flu in the state.
Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat are the seven other states which had earlier confirmed Avian Influenza as the cause of the recent bird deaths. Haryana has reported the most number of bird deaths with more than 4 lakh birds dead in the last few weeks.
As per the central government, states have been requested to build awareness among the public and avoid the spread of misinformation regarding bird flu.
