AGARTALA: The premier government poultry farm at R K Nagar here has started culling of ducks following an outbreak of bird flu in Tripura. In the past two weeks, more than 2,100 ducks died in the farm. The presence of H5N1 virus was confirmed by Belgachhia Regional Animal Diseases Diagnostic Centre, Kolkata. Soon after the report reached here on Thursday, the government ordered immediate culling of birds in the farm.
State animal resource development minister Aghore Debbarma said, "In the wake of confirmation of avian influenza strain among the birds, culling has begun at the R K Nagar poultry farm from this morning." He added that blood samples have also been sent to the Bhopal Animal Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory for further tests.
Dipankar Roy, a senior official from the Union animal resource ministry, has also flown to Tripura to review the situation. It is suspected that avian influenza might have reached here from Bangladesh.
In April, 2008, more than 30,000 hens, ducks and wild birds died in the Kamalpur subdivision of Dhalai district besides some other towns. At that time, the strains of bird flu had reached Tripura from Bangladesh.
