Barwala chicken toll over 1 lakh: DC

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, January 3

Deputy Commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja was today apprised of the situation at Barwala poultry farms in light of mass death of chickens due to an unknown disease. He was presiding over a meeting on the issue with officials of the Animal Husbandry Department.

Ahuja, when contacted, said they had been closely monitoring the situation and frequent site inspections by the Animal Husbandry Department were being conducted to keep everything under control.

The Deputy Commissioner said they were surveying the affected farms to ascertain the exact number of fatalities. He added that the toll so far was expected to be more than 1 lakh. “The cause of deaths can only be confirmed after the report. For now, there is no need to panic,” he said.

‘Bird flu as death cause unlikely’

During our survey, we found poultry workers engaged in farms haven’t developed any symptom of bird flu. It gives us enough reasons to believe that it’s not bird flu. — Dr Anil Banwala, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Haryana

Dr Anil Banwala, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Haryana, said, “We apprised the DC of the current situation to ensure preparedness, control and containment of bird flu, if any such possibility arises.” He, however, added that their survey of affected sites did not suggest avian influenza or bird flu behind the mortalities.

“If it would have been bird flu, a strain of the disease generally transmits from birds to humans. During our survey, we found poultry workers engaged in farms haven’t developed any symptom of bird flu. It gives us enough reasons to believe that it’s not bird flu,” Dr Banwala said.

There are more than 10,000 workers at about 140 poultry farms in Barwala, the second largest poultry belt of Asia.

Meanwhile, the report of samples sent to the Regional Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory, Jalandhar, is expected in a day or two.