BHUBANESHWAR, 10 January 2017 : The Khurda administration has informed that culling of poultry in the affected Kerang village has been completed. The state government also told the villagers to rear poultry for the next three months.

Speaking to reporters, Bishnupada Sethy, secretary of  Fisheries and Animal Resources Department (F&ARD) said that culling has been completed and as per the standing instructions of the Government of India, we had surveyed Kerang village and did not found any poultry farm in the village.

The administration has taken adequate measures to arrest the further spread of avian influenza as it is a pathogenic virus which can affect human beings mostly children and elderly persons, and other domestic animals, Sethy stressed.

Speaking about the incidences of bird flu in Rourkela and Panposh, Sethy said that samples were sent to High-Security Animal Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal. During the test, it was found that the dead birds were infected with H5N1 virus.

He also said the sample of the dead Pelican bird found in the zoo inside the Indira Gandhi Park in Rourkela has been traced with H5N1 virus.

Though the outbreak of bird flu in these areas has not affected the poultry, he pointed out.

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