Migratory birds’ blood samples to be tested

Rajinder Nagarkoti/ Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/New Delhi, Dec 19

A day after 110 domesticated geese were culled at Sukhna Lake following Centre’s directive, the Chandigarh Administration today said blood samples of migratory birds will be collected for further testing.

Senior officials of the administration held a meeting with Vinay Mohan, Joint Director, Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (RDDL), Jalandhar, and decided to take samples.

As the administration began operations to prevent potential Avian Influenza infection from spreading, it has emerged that the outbreak of the highly pathogenic strain in the lake started eight days ago and took a week to be notified.

The official announcement — “Immediate Notification of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in India” — submitted by the Government of India to the World Organization for Animal Health (on the lines of WHO) mentions the date of the start of the outbreak among captive ducks in the lake as December 11 and the date of reporting of the outbreak as December 18.

The pre-confirmation (initial reports) of Avian Influenza, as per the notification, happened on December 16, four days after the outbreak. it raises a question mark on whether it is reasonable for the system to take a week to notify a highly infectious disease considering its epicentre in the instant case was a heavily frequented public place.
Inquiries suggest in the initial days of the outbreak, officials were locked in a tussle over the jurisdiction of the ducks. A source in UT’s Animal Husbandry Department said it took a while for the forest department to take ownership.
“The Forest Department oversees the lake area but in the initial days they were reluctant to own dying ducks. We finally convinced them and then the teamwork began,” said a senior UT Animal Husbandry department official.
On the time taken to notify the disease, officials in the Central Animal Husbandry Department said a “week’s time was reasonable considering the challenges of sampling from infected animals, packaging of samples and final testing”.
“Only Air India flights carry such samples for advanced tests to Bhopal; private flights do not. Packaging has to be perfect to prevent fecal matter, secretions, etc. from infected birds from spilling. Infected samples are carried in pressurised cabins and packing consumes time. The drill can take a week,” said a senior official in the Agriculture Ministry.
The notification signed by Secretary, Animal Husbandry, Anup Thakur and accessed by The Tribune mentions the number of ducks dead in the outbreak as 22 and case fatality rate as 100 per cent.
It mentions affected population only as “captive ducks in Sukhna Lake” which means migratory birds and poultry are not affected.