Birds at Ranganathittu under watch for flu

Following the outbreak of bird flu at Central Poultry Breeding Farm at Hesaraghatta in Bangalore, veterinarians are on high alert at the popular Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary in the taluk.

A team of experts on Saturday visited the sanctuary and collected information pertaining to the movement of birds from the Forest officers. Veterinary officer at Palahalli Hospital Dr Shivashankar said he has sought the Forest department to inform the department in case of deaths among birds in the sanctuary. Preliminary reports state that there is nothing to fear. 
However, the officers are keeping a tab on the winged attractions.

The sanctuary now has birds belonging to the breeds of white ibis, cormorant, night heron and river tern. Though most of them are migratory, there is no sign of disease. More than that, white ibis are set to fly to another location, as it’s common among them during this period.

The sanctuary will be receiving more birds in the end of December and January next like painted stork, spoonbill, open bill stork, among others.

As a precautionary measure, samples of blood of locally bred chicken in the neighbouring villages of the sanctuary have been collected and sent to regional veterinary health laboratory in Mysore and Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals (IAH and VB), Hebbal, Bangalore.