Make poultry farming in northeast more scientific: Aviation flu experts - Newstrack India

[sunil]

Make poultry farming in northeast more scientific: Aviation flu experts - Newstrack India

Agartala, April 22 (IANS) Timely vaccination of birds and animals, access to standard laboratories and maintaining bio-security are among the measures required to curb the sporadic outbreak of bird flu in India's northeast, says a team of international and Indian experts touring the region.

 

Experts of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and India, who are on a five-day visit to Tripura to probe the causes of frequent bird flu outbreaks, have asked the northeastern states to maintain stipulated protocols to stop the contagious disease from resurfacing.

 

"The FAO and Indian experts have also suggested reaching out to common people with scientific methods of protection of poultry farms, birds, ducks and poultry products," Tripura's animal resources development secretary Swapan Saha told IANS.

 

He said the state government had decided to hold at least 1,000 awareness camps across the state.

 

Saha said the team, which is likely to visit Assam, Meghalaya and other northeastern states too, would soon submit a detailed report to the central government.

 

Apart from maintenance of bio-security, the suggested protocols include timely vaccination for birds and animals, close coordination between lab and land and access to standard laboratories.

 

The five-member team comprises FAO's Emergency Centre for Trans-boundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) national project coordinator A.B. Negi, ECTAD's chief technical adviser John Weaver, ECTAD national consultant Madhur S. Dhingra, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) project director H. Rahman and senior scientist of Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) Chakradhar Tosh.

 

The northeastern states, bordering China, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal, are occasionally hit by avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, affecting the poultry industry.

 

"Sporadic outbreak of bird flu has been badly affecting the poultry industry in the northeastern states," animal resources development department director Manoranjan Sarkar told IANS.

 

Four northeastern states - Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam - share a


http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=...erts-.html