Hyderabad, Jan 12 (IANS): Telangana Health Minister E. Rajender on Tuesday appealed to people not to panic over bird flu reported in some states, saying there were so far no cases of its transmission to humans.

Stating that Telangana has not reported any case of bird flu, the minister said rumours about the disease were causing heavy losses to the poultry industry.

He, along with Animal Husbandry Minister T. Srinivas Yadav and Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, held a meeting with officials to review the situation in view of the bird flu cases in some states and to discuss the preventive measures taken in the state.

Srinivas Yadav said Telangana was the first state in the country to sound an alert, especially in districts bordering other states.

Stating that there are no chances of a spread of bird flu in Telangana, he said all preventive steps were taken. He called for clearing misconception that eating chicken or eggs will cause bird flu.

The minister said fear being spread through rumours affected the poultry industry which was on path of recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic. He appealed to people not to pay heed to rumours.

Srinivas Yadav said the poultry industry was taking all precautions. He said authorities were also taking all precautions including surveillance of migratory birds.

The minister pointed out that Telangana stands at third place in the poultry sector in India and it is exporting poultry products to other states and countries.

The state has set up 1,300 rapid response teams as part of the measures to tackle any outbreak of bird flu. Officials of Animal Husbandry, Health and Forest Departments are coordinating with Collectors of the border districts.

Following media reports about death of chickens in Nalgonda, Warangal and Peddapali districts, the authorities sent 276 samples for testing and all of them tested negative. A total of 1,000 samples were tested during last three days and all of them were found negative.