Flu alert, migratory birds too under official scanner

Joint Director of the Animal Husbandry Department K Kamalesh Thanappan told reporters after inspecting the bird flu intervention activities carried out by the department at the check posts connecting Coimbatore and Kerala. “Monitoring migratory birds on par with the birds in farms is not possible, but the department is constantly watching the migratory birds at the sanctuaries across the state. So far there has not been any unusual deaths,” he said. All the vehicles entering Tamil Nadu from the neighbouring state are being thoroughly checked at the inter-state border to contain the spread of the disease in Tamil Nadu. 

Kamalesh said that the department has established 26 check posts along the six districts bordering Kerala and are sanitising all the vehicles crossing the border over the last 10 days. He said that the department has appointed monitoring officers for each district to ensure that there is no slag in the works. “These works will continue effectively till the Centre declares that Kerala is free from bird flu,” he said and added that works carried out so far are satisfactory. On the other hand, internal monitoring is also being done regularly by the department officials across ranks by visiting poultry farms.  “We have asked farmers to report unusual or mass death of birds and there have been no such incidents so far. The State is free from bird flu,” the joint director said.