Experts still clueless, but rule out avian influenza

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 14

Veterinary experts at the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (RDDL) have not been able to ascertain the cause of the death of birds at several places in the region.

They have so far ruled out the prevalence of bird flu in any of the samples of dead birds received from parts of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

The experts have, however, hinted at possible reasons such as a long spell of cold weather or toxic elements in grains or water.

Dr Vinay Mohan, Joint Director, RDDL, said: “The focus is to detect the highly contagious avian influenza. We have so far conducted tests on samples of 37 ducks from Fazilka, 45 migratory birds from Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary in Gurgaon, poultry from the periphery of Chandigarh and water samples from the Sukhna Lake. All samples have tested negative.”

He said: “We have got samples from at least 25 different places in the past one month, but none except one initial sample from the Sukhna Lake has tested positive.”

The experts have not ruled out any other infection, although they have been saying that they have not noted any superficial symptoms of any other infectious disease.

Dr Mohan, however, said: “For testing toxicity, we have sent some samples to the Animal Disease Diagnostic Centre, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana.”

Dr Amarjit Singh of GADVASU said: “We have sent our report to the Jalandhar lab. We cannot disclose the details.”