Mizoram believed to be still clear from bird flu – officials
August 7th, 2007 5:30 pm | News | cedric | 109 views|
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Aizawl Aug 6: State AH & Vety officials said they believe Mizoram to be still clear from avian influenza despite reports of poultry deaths from some parts of the state.
In a press briefing conducted by the state Vety department today, AH & Vety director Dr. C. Sangnghina said from what veterinary officials could gather from first tentative diagnosis, the poultry deaths reported from the Manipur border inside Mizoram appears to be from consumption of rat poison while those reported from southern Mizoram on the Myanmar border are from fowl pox and fowl cholera.
“Although we cannot dismiss out of hand the presence of avian flu in the state, we are pretty certain that poultry deaths that have been reported from the Manipur and Myanmar borders are not from avian flu. Tentative diagnosis point to poultry deaths in north east Mizoram on the Manipur border to be from rat poison while the poultry deaths in southern Mizoram near the Myanmar border seems to be from fowl pox and fowl cholera,” Dr Sangnghina said.
The village council and YMA of Hrianghmun village in north east Mizoram has released a statement saying that the cause of poultry deaths in the village had been ascertained and that it was from rat poison.
The statement pointed out that rat poison had been distributed to each household of Hrianghmun village by the village council on July 26 as a result of which poultry deaths were witnessed from July 29.
Confirming the village authorities’ declaration of their chickens dying from rat poison, the Vety director said the team of doctors who rushed to the area following chicken death reports were of the opinion that the chickens had died from consuming rat poison or rats that have been poisoned as a result of which his department has decided not to rush the samples taken from the Manipur border to labs in the metropolises.
He, however, said 42 serum samples from Vawmbuk village area in southern Mizoram had been rushed to labs in Kolkata and Bhopal although preliminary investigations point to fowl pox and fowl cholera as the culprits for the poultry deaths there. He said the Vety official who had been sent to take the samples would remain in Bhopal to wait for the laboratory report and that a rapid response team had been kept in place in Vawmbuk just in case.
Dr Sangnghina also informed the media that state boundaries have been opened following a Centre directive that states should refrain from imposing restrictions from states not reported to have avian flu outbreaks. However, strict vigil is still being kept to stop animal movements across the international borders since both neighbouring Myanmar and Bangladesh officials have played down the avian flu outbreak in their respective countries.
The media was also told that the AH & Vety department is setting up a control room with a dedicated telephone which will cater only to the media to answer queries.
Asked about the indiscriminate slaughtering of pigs that are being transported in Champhai district, Dr Sangnghina said this will stop now because district authorities have been informed to contact Vety officials whenever pigs being transported are seized to identify whether the pigs are from the local area or from Myanmar. He said identification of local pigs is possible because the breeds are different.
“The breed of pigs in Myanmar is different from those we breed here in Mizoram and our officials have become very expert in differentiating the breeds. They will now be contacted whenever pigs in transit are seized by the district administration to confirm whether the pigs have foreign origins or not,” he said.
- Aizol Times
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