JOIN USCulling of fowl began in Odisha's capital today in the wake of detection of avian flu in a farm of the Central Poultry Development Organisation (CPDO) here.
A huge pit has been dug to bury the culled birds and elaborate arrangements have been made for disinfecting the area, a senior official in Fisheries and Animal Resources Development department said.
While ten rapid response teams (RRT) have been formed to handle the situation, five of them have been engaged in the culling operation and the rest in creating awareness among people in 29 wards of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation.
The culling operation was launched a day after the state government received an advisory from the Centre to eliminate poultry birds at the CPDO farm and a three km radius area around it, he said.
The operation was likely to be completed in three days, he said, adding that the CPDO farm housed about 30,000 fowl, including many rare varieties used for breeding.
H5N1 virus was reported at the farm after culling took place at Keranga in Khurda district and Betanati in Mayurbhanj district last month, according to Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Secretary Satyabrata Sahu.
CPDO had sent samples to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal, which confirmed the detection of bird flu virus, he said.