Bird flu alert in North-East India

The Tripura government has sounded an alert against bird flu in the wake of reports of the disease in neighbouring Bangladesh, officials said today. The Family Welfare Preventive Medicine and Animal Resource Development departments have jointly taken all possible steps to tackle avian flu, ARD director Narayan Chandra Das said. The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has asked the state to take precautionary measures as cases of avian flu were reported from across the border, he said. A total of 266 trained ARD assistants have been asked to be vigilant in border areas as Tripura imports a huge quantity of chicks and eggs from Bangladesh, officials said. Avian influenza has slashed sales of poultry and poultry products by 20 percent in Bangladesh, the local daily The Financial Express reported Monday. "The disease has cost the poultry industry a 20 percent drop in sales of its products during the last three days," Moshiur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Poultry Association, was quoted as saying. "We fear the sales to drop further as consumption of chickens and eggs are dropping by the day," Rahman said. Sales of chickens and eggs have fallen substantially in the local markets, especially in and around Savar, 25 km west of the capital Dhaka, where four out of the six affected poultry farms are located within three kilometers of each other. Meanwhile, the livestock department has been ordered to buy and stamp-out (bury scientifically) all homegrown chickens, ducks and birds located within 1 km of the six affected poultry farms.The government has sanctioned fund to buy the chickens from all the houses that rear chickens, ducks and birds. The purchased poultry products are buried for safety. So far, 32,000 chickens from five private farms have been destroyed. The government has also restricted the movement of all poultry products within 10 km of the affected farms. The government announced the detection of the Avian Influenza on March 22.