Bird flu outbreak in Kerala

The animal husbandry department has confirmed that thousands of ducks in Kuttanad and Ambalapuzha taluks had died due to bird flu in the past one week. The announcement came after serum samples of the birds sent by the department to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) in Bhopal tested positive. “It's 100% confirmed that it's avian influenza, but further tests will have to be conducted to identify whether it's high or low pathogenic variety,“ Dr D D Kulkarni, director of NIHSAD lab, said.“We're doing the tests and the results will be known in a day or two.“ The Alappuzha district administration has now decided to kill ducks within 1 km of five places -Nedumudi, Purackadu, Thakazhi, Champakkulam and Bhagavathy paddy field -where infected ducks were found. The district collector has also imposed a ban on the sale of the ducks in Kuttanad and Ambalappuzha taluks.
Casualties can be high if human beings are infected by the highly pathogenic varieties of viruses like H5N1. Dr Kulkarni said even though avian influenza was a zoonotic disease that could transmit from birds to humans, no casualties had been reported from India so far.He said 97 episodes of the disease outbreak were reported in India since 2006, when the disease containment protocol was put in place.

Avian influenza or bird flu, first detected in ducks in Alappuzha district, was confirmed in Aymanam in Kottayam and Peringad in Pathanamthitta on Tuesday . Bird flu was also confirmed in a broiler chicken farm near Kottayam, raising the specter of an epidemic. A high-level meeting convened by Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday decided to go for massive cull ing of approximately 2.5 lakh birds in the affected regions in three days, a remedy recommended universally to curb the disease from spreading.However, the culling will begin only on Thursday , a move that could put not just poultry and livestock but also human beings in proximity to them under increased risk.
It will take five more days to know the type of N antigen in the virus which is crucial in determining whether the virus can spread to human beings or not. But anxiety over the threat to humans was compounded as it became clear that the state faced a severe shortage of preventive drugs, notably Oseltamivir. At present the state has a stock of only 6,720 Oseltamivir tablets and it has been estimated that with the bird flu spreading to more areas there will be an immediate demand of 10,000 tablets and a short-term need of 50,000 to meet any eventuality .
As precaution, the meeting chaired by the CM decided to ban the sale of duck meat and eggs in a 10-km radius in places like Purakkad, Thalaviri and Kainakari in Alappuzha district and Aymanam in Kottayam. Animal Husbandry department will employ 304 squads to execute culling.