BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Wednesday ordered culling of poultry birds in a radius of 3 km from Keranga village in Khurda where the first avian influenza positive cases were reported on Sunday.The Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Department said the culling will start with immediate effect. Compensation for the poultry farmers and owners of birds has also been announced by the Government.After receiving an advisory from the Centre in the afternoon, the Chief Minister’s Office gave its nod for culling to be carried out immediately and compensation distributed to the locals. District Collector of Khurda and Director of Veterinary Services have already been put on the job.Secretary to FARD Department Satyabrata Sahu said, sufficient numbers of protective masks and kits have already been placed for the teams which will carry out the culling. Over 50 teams have been readied for this purpose.As per the package, farmers will receive Rs 70 for each egg-laying bird, Rs 60 for a broiler, Rs 30 for a chick and Rs 2 for an egg. Similarly, for a kg of chicken feed, Rs 6 will be paid as compensation. The number of households and firms which will be come under the package will be known only after an initial assessment is made, Sahu said.The area, however, does not have many organised firms. There is one layer firm with a capacity of 40,000 birds which was started last year by a veterinary student with a Rs 2 cr loan. The mass killing could be disastrous for such firms.As the culling order came in, death of poultry birds was reported from Jagatsinghpur district. The teams of Directorate of Veterinary Services and Animal Diseases Research Institute went to Raghunathpur and Paradip after about 50 birds were reported dead.“Most of the birds belonged to firms and we have already collected samples which will be sent to the High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory at Bhopal,” sources added. More than 1000 samples have already been sent to the Bhopal lab most of which belonged to crows.
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