Findings of Jalandhar lab questioned

The UT Wildlife Department has expressed its displeasure over the findings of the Jalandhar-based Regional Disease Diagnostics Laboratory (RDDL) claiming that veterinary experts were stressing more on conducting tests for confirming whether avian influenza virus was the cause of the deaths of geese instead of other related diseases that "killed the birds".

Bipin Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 16

The UT Wildlife Department has expressed its displeasure over the findings of the Jalandhar-based Regional Disease Diagnostics Laboratory (RDDL) claiming that veterinary experts were stressing more on conducting tests for confirming whether avian influenza virus was the cause of the deaths of geese instead of other related diseases that "killed the birds".
A team of wildlife officials, lead by Santosh Kumar, Chief Wildlife Warden, Chandigarh, visited the lake island today and deployed workers to collect castor seeds. Wildlife officials apprehend that the geese died after eating castor seeds scattered on the island.
Santosh Kumar claimed that the castor seeds, being a laxative and poisonous in the nature, cleared the intestines of the birds due to which veterinarians came to the conclusion that the geese died of starvation, he claimed.
Santosh Kumar and his team held a meeting with scientists from the RDDL who visited Sukhna Lake and took stock of the situation. They got tips from the scientists on how to feed geese.
Dr Karanwarjit Singh, Nodal Officer (Poultry Disease and Control), and Dr MP Singh, a veterinary doctor at Chhat Bir Zoo, also met the scientists, who were of the view that their prime concern was to ascertain whether the avian influenza virus was causing the epidemic. The scientists claimed that UT wildlife officials informed them almost a week after the geese deaths were reported from the lake. The officials had sent only six carcasses of geese for postmortem so far.
Starvation was the main cause of the deaths, but to reascertain whether it could be the avian influenza virus, infectious bursal disease (IBD) or newcastle disease virus (NDV), sealed carcasses of the geese had been sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory, they claimed, adding that wildlife officers never informed them that the birds ate castor seeds.

4 more carcasses found
While the geese continue to die (four more carcasses were recovered on Tuesday) and fall sick, the authorities have not put them on medication so far. Veterinarians claimed that the birds could not be administered any medicine until the disease they were suffering from was diagnosed. Wildlife officials, however, claimed that there were no deaths of birds today.

NGOs write to Administrator
Taking note of news reports on the deaths of geese published in different newspapers, two non-governmental organisations have written to the UT Administrator and the Chief Wildlife Warden in this regard. Showing concern over the deaths, Tanisha Kashyap from the Protection and Care for Animals, has written to the Chief Wildlife Warden asking him to ensure the protection of the birds from the mysterious disease.
Former Additional Chief Wildlife Warden, Punjab, Gurmit Singh, who is also president of Nature Conservation Society, Punjab, in a letter to the UT Administrator, has stated that releasing domesticated ducks into Sukhna Lake was a foolish idea. The Central Zoo Authority has already banned keeping of common pigeons, ducks, geese and rabbits in zoos in the country.