Daily News & Analysis

NAVAPUR/NEW DELHI, Feb 21: The poultry town of Navapur has become a chicken graveyard. Several farmers have abandoned their farms while others are resisting the government order to cull fowl within a 3km radius.
 
An official involved in the culling admitted the lack of cooperation was hampering pace. “We are new here and do not know where the farms are located,” he said. “Many farms are locked up and the owners are absent. This makes our job very difficult.”
 
As a result, the work is proceeding at an excruciatingly slow pace. The government planned to slaughter 9,00,000 birds in three days, but by Monday evening only 70,000 had been destroyed.
 
State Animal Husbandry Minister Anees Ahmed, who is in Navapur since Sunday, said it will take at least eight days to clean up 1,000 tonnes of bird droppings in the town.
 
Meanwhile, the government remained firm as the poultry industry questioned the avian flu alert. It said scientists had made no mistake in identifying the virus. “The infection cannot be wished away,” Union Health Secretary PK Hota said. “We have cross-checked properly before announcing it. This is the reality. Let’s face it.”
 
The industry had suggested that the scientists had confused it with Ranikhet, a common poultry infection. “A series of tests were conducted at the High-Security Animal Diseases Lab (HSADL) on the samples from Navapur,” Upma Chawdhry, joint secretary in the animal husbandry department of the Union agriculture ministry, said.
 
Dr NK Ganguly, director-general, Indian Council of Medical Research, said the tests were confirmed by two scientists at the National Institute of Virology, Pune, Dr Leena Yoglekar and Dr AC Mishra, who are experts in human influenza. “We had no option but to declare that these cases were of bird flu. There is no ambiguity in the results,” Dr Ganguly said. But the government assured the Lok Sabha that there is no cause for panic.