Tripura sends bird sample to Kolkata for testing
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04/04/2008
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Sentinel (Guwahati)
Tripura Animal Resource Development Department (ARDD) has sent the first consignment of blood and dead bird samples to Belgachhia testing laboratory in Kolkata today following sudden death of about 3,000 birds, including poultry fowl during the past week in the villages of Kamalpur bordering Bangladesh in North Tripura. ARDD Director Ashis Roy Barman told media here that an expert team led by its Deputy Director Chandan Kumar Roy had been camping in the area and checked the birds' health. He said the villagers had reported that more than 3,000 chickens, ducks, crows and other wild birds had first fallen sick and then died in the area while several dogs and jackals, which had consumed the affected birds, were also found dead. "Initial investigation has confirmed that it is not an outbreak of bird flu. We suspect it to be Ranikhet disease but we sent the blood sample to national laboratories for confirmation,'' Dr Barman asserted and added that Ranikhet, also known as Newcastle disease was a highly infectious and fatal viral disease, which attacks poultry of all ages. Earlier, the detection of the H5N1 virus in chickens at small poultry farms in Moulabibazar district of Bangladesh, opposite Kamalpur, had prompted the Tripura Government to take measures, including sealing of borders, to stop the movement of poultry and poultry products between the two countries. "We have asked the BSF to maintain a strict vigil along the Indo-Bangla border to prevent illegal trade of poultry and poultry products from Bangladesh,'' he underlined adding that the state forest department has also asked its officials to keep a watch on water bodies where migratory birds from India and abroad were currently breeding.