Bird flu: Culling of birds planned in Bhubaneswar

India Gazette (IANS) Saturday 4th February, 2012

Odisha Saturday decided to cull poultry in parts of its capital city Bhubaneswar after a bird flu case surfaced in the city, official said.

"The culling operation will start from Sunday," Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Director Benudhar Dash told IANS.

The state authorities had recently sent three poultry samples from the city's government-run Central Poultry Development Organisation (CPDO) to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Madhya Pradesh' capital Bhopal after several chickens died.

One of these samples tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus, said Dash adding the CPDO has nearly 30,000 poultry birds.

To prevent the spread of infection, the movement of poultry and related products had been restricted from the area within a three km radius of the CPDO, he said.

The state had culled thousands of poultry birds earlier this month after bird flu cases were detected in the districts of Khordha, Mayurbhanj and Angul. Although Bhubaneswar comes under Khordha district, this was the first case of bird flu reported in the city.