From Our Correspondent
Tura: The State Government has confirmed the first ever case of bird flu outbreak in the State with test reports of samples taken from dead poultry showing a positive report of the presence of the influenza virus.
“We received confirmation of the test results from blood samples of dead poultry sent to a high security lab at Bhopal that the deaths were caused from the bird flu virus. And so we will begin culling as many as 25,500 birds within a three km radius beginning from the Government poultry farm in Williamnagar which is the epicenter of the outbreak from Thursday morning,” East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi informed on Wednesday.
The eight rapid response teams of the Government which have been placed on readiness will conduct the culling operations.
A meeting of the joint task force that was recently created to fight the outbreak will be holding a crucial meeting at the DC’s office in Williamnagar to decide on further course of action in preventing spread of the disease to new areas.
So far the disease appears to be contained in the Williamnagar government poultry farm only but reports of bird deaths are surfacing from Samanda village, Samgong locality of the town, and far off Resubelpara Subdivision region.
Shillong is deploying one team of specialized doctors to Williamnagar and their task will be to diagnose and treat any patient who may contract the viral strain from the bird flu.
“These doctors are experts in treating Avian Flu which is caused by the bird flu virus and we are setting up a segregated out-patient department (OPD) at Williamnagar Civil Hospital to screen any patient who shows symptoms of Avian Flu,” Bakshi revealed.
Notice for medical practitioners, rural health centres and dispensaries have been issued to monitor patients with symptoms of Avian Flu and a control room has been opened in the DC’s office in Williamnagar from Wednesday.
“We have also alerted the neighbouring West and South Garo Hills districts as well as Assam’s Goalpara, Dhubri and Kamrup districts. West Garo Hills district is also on alert following the outbreak but has stopped short of banning the sale of poultry products.
