Bird disease surveillance and monitoring started; migratory birds samples taken from Sukhna
KI Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
The Department of Animal Husbandry launched active surveillance & monitoring programme in Sukhna & Dhanas lake to combat any ingression of disease in birds. The team of officials of Animal Husbandry Department, U.T. Chandigarh have collected 25 samples of migratory birds at Sukhna & Dhanas lake, 55 samples of backyard poultry in the villages and 25 samples of birds from commercial Poultry Farms. The samples have been sent to RDDL Jalandhar for disease investigation if any. This was stated by Dr. Kanwarjit Singh, Joint Director, Animal Husbandry, Chandigarh here today.
The Department plays an important role in monitoring of all animal and bird diseases by doing active surveillance exercises in Chandigarh (U.T). During the onset of winters, the migratory birds from various parts of world arrive in city & its surrounding areas, which sometime is potent source of viral Infection which are also zoonotic in nature.
There have been sporadic reports of outbreak of avian related diseases like bird flu in the past years, which can be communicable to human beings.Thus, strict vigil against the outbreak of such diseases is essential. In December 2014, after getting positive reports of sera samples of ducks in Sukhna Lake, bird flu was declared by Government of India. With its proactive approach and effective surveillance and monitoring at field level, the virus of H5N1 was controlled at its source level by the Animal Husbandry Department from spreading further as per Government of India guidelines. Since then, the department is carrying out regular surveillance of bird flu or diseases caused by birds.
Tejdeep Singh Saini, Director Animal Husbandry revealed that Government of India has declared India Free from bird flu in September, 2019. The Department is continuing the effective surveillance programme to maintain the area of U.T. Chandigarh disease free from such lethal infections which are zoonotic in nature.
