Poultry farmers afraid of resurgence of bird flu, after a sample from Nawada farm test positive of avian influenza

PATNA: Poultry farmers in Bihar are afraid of resurgence of bird flu amidst palpable fear of covid-19, after a sample collected from a private poultry farm in Nawada district was recently tested positive for avian influenza.
The farmers are fearful also because the latest positive case of bird flu surfaced after a gap of almost a month from the last two positive cases, which were reported on March 26 from Ashok Nagar (Kankarbagh) in Patna district and Saidpur village under Katarisarai block of Nalanda district.
Bihar has around 1,200 big and medium size poultry farms. Besides, the state also has more than 2,000 backyard poultry farm where 10 to 100 chickens are kept, an official of agriculture department said.
According to a data provided by the state’s animal and fisheries resources department (AFRD), altogether six samples collected from different places in the month of March were tested positive for bird flu. This year’s first positive case of bird flu was reported from Kankarbagh in Patna on March 6. Three other positive samples were reported from Saidpur, Patna high court area and the Bazar Samiti area (all in the state capital) on March 17. And again on March 26, other two positive cases of bird flu were reported from Patna and Nalanda districts.
“The finding of positive sample of bird flu in Nawada’s Rajhat village and subsequent culling of 9,000 hens of the private farm has sent a shock wave among the poultry farmers. We are very much disturbed over the development,” said Rahul Kumar, who runs a poultry farm near Koelwar in Bhojpur district. “But, we are now taking all preventive measures as suggested by the state government to save our chickens,” said Rabindra Sharma, another farm owner.
Taking the Nawada case seriously, the AFRD has asked its all district animal husbandry officers (DAHOs) to collect samples from all big, medium and backyard poultry farms to ensure timely detection of bird flu.
“The department is fully alert to check infection of bird flu. All district and division level officers have been asked to maintain close vigil on poultry farms. The department has so far collected 1,841 samples as a preventive measures and sent them to lab at Kolkata and Bhopal,” State’s agriculture, animal and fish resources minister Prem Kumar told TOI on Friday.
Minister said the poultry farmers do not need to be panicky as the state government has taken all preventive measures to check the infection of bird flu and swine fever.