Culling of birds continues in Betanati

BARIPADA: Mass culling of birds continued in Betanati block of Mayurbhanj district on Saturday following a Central directive to prevent the spread of avian influenza that was detected in Bahanada village.  Official sources said as many as 8,800 birds had been culled and 1,189 eggs destroyed in 32 villages under this block in the last four days. A Central team consisting of two medical officers and an official from the State visited the affected area to supervise the culling.While sale and movement of poultry in and around Mayurbhanj have been prohibited, health workers moved to the affected areas to screen people for any flu-like symptoms. No human infections, although, have been reported so far.  The presence of H5N1 virus was detected from a sample collected from Bahanada village. “We hope the culling will be completed on Sunday as we have deployed all 10 rapid response teams and 10 surveillance teams for the purpose as advised by the Central team,” said CDVO Nityananda Das.  The district administration also initiated awareness programmes in the villages through door-to-door campaigns.