Culling of birds to be completed by Sunday

Two special wards would be opened at the Alappuzha Medical College to treat persons infected with the virus

The Kerala government today decided to complete the culling of birds hit by H5 N1 virus within the next three days.

Around 300,000 birds are expected to be culled at various spots in the affected districts of Alappuzha, Kotayam and Pathanamthitta.

A high-level meeting of the departments of health and animal husbandry, chaired by chief minister Oommen Chandy, took stock of the situation and decided to focus on preventive steps to check the spread of disease to human beings.

Making it clear there was no need for panic, health minister VS Sivakumar said health officials had examined around 14,000 persons in the affected areas and found no symptoms of disease among them.

However, as a precautionary measure, fluid samples of two persons engaged in culling operations have been collected and sent for examination, he said.

Till now, more than 18,000 birds, mostly ducks, had been killed, said Sivakumar, who added 44 Rapid Response Force personnel from both the departments were on the field and more would be pressed into service to speed up the culling operations.

Five such camps are fully operational in Alappuzha district where the disease spread was worst.

Sivakumar said the compensation amount for the affected farmers was being distributed from today. The state government had announced compensation of Rs 200 and Rs 100 for every poultry bird aged above two months and less than two-months old, respectively.   

On the precautionary measures taken, he said, two special wards would be opened at the Alappuzha Medical College to treat persons infected with the bird flu.

The minister said there was adequate stock of preventive medicines and orders have been placed for more. Nearly 10,000 health kits would be distributed to health officials and about 30,000 packs of preventive medicines would reach tomorrow, he said.

A three-member central expert team, one of them from the National Centre for Disease Control, had visited the affected areas on November 26 to submit a report to the Centre.

The outbreak of the infection two weeks ago had claimed thousands of ducks in the water-logged Kuttanad in Alappuzha and the adjoining areas, causing huge loss to poultry rearers, most of them medium and marginal farmers.