Worries come home to roost

BHUBANESWAR: As the State Government intensified culling of poultry birds in Khurda’s Keranga, the Capital City suffered the first bouts of panic after a dozen crows were found dead in Kharavela Nagar area.The mass death of the crows prompted the locals to call the avian influenza surveillance team which consigned the birds to the flames as a measure of precaution.It was during the morning hours that the birds started dropping dead near a homeopathy college which set the alarm bell ringing. With birds being culled en masse not very far, the crow death was enough to spread panic.“Mass death of crows is a nationwide trend. Apart from casualties being reported from across the State, other states too have recorded deaths. Our focus will, though, be poultry birds,” Director of Veterinary Services Benudhar Das said. However, as a measure of precaution, the veterinary officials collected samples of the crows from the City and sent them for test. So far, the Bhopal-based High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory has not confirmed a crow H5N1 positive.There was no stopping the panic wave though. While most chicken vending outlets downed shutters, even the Government-run Opolfed felt the pinch. The cooperative federation, which supplies close to 1.5 quintal broiler chicken everyday to 58 kiosks in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, saw a 50 pc drop in sale. “Yesterday, we sold about 1.2 quintal and today it fell to 60 kg. There is no order for Saturday,” said an official. Besides the eggs, Opolfed supplies had no takers either.Amidst the chaos, culling continued at Keranga. The ten rapid response teams (RRTs) culled 8,962 birds and destroyed 6,864 eggs on Friday. Das said, six surveillance teams were on job in the villages located in the 3 km radius of Keranga looking for the suspect cases.