To avert any risk of avian influenza H5NI virus in Chandigarh, the UT Administration on Wednesday launched active surveillance and monitoring programme at Sukhna Lake and Dhanas Lake, where migratory birds have arrived for their annual sojourn.
“The team of officials of Animal Husbandry Department, Chandigarh collected 25 samples from migratory birds at Sukhna Lake and Dhanas Lake. Apart from this, 55 samples of backyard poultry in the villages and 25 samples of birds from commercial poultry farms were collected on Wednesday,” said Dr Kanwarjit Singh, Joint Director, Animal Husbandry, Chandigarh.
He said that the samples have been sent to RDDL Jalandhar for disease investigation, if any. The Department has launched active surveillance and monitoring programme to combat any ingression of disease in birds, he added
The samples of blood, fecal or throat swab of the birds are collected for the disease investigation.
During the onset of winters, the migratory birds from various parts of world arrive in the city and its surrounding areas, which sometime is potent source of viral infection which are also zoonotic in nature, Dr Kanwarjit Singh said.
There have been sporadic reports of outbreak of avian related diseases like bird flu in the past years, which can be communicable to human beings. Thus, strict vigil against the outbreak of such diseases is essential, he added.
The 2019 annual bird census in Chandigarh held recently has recorded 620 birds, including migratory and water-dependent species. Last year, the number was 417. This time, the number of water-dependent species has increased but other bird species, excluding the water fowl, decreased.
The survey was conducted at Nagar Van, Sukhna Lake starting from Lake Club to Regulatory End and in Sukhna Forest area. As per the census, 33 species of water fowl were observed this time as compared to 31 in 2018 and 98 other bird species were observed in 2018 while 86 were observed this time. The migratory birds spotted in fair number in the census included Bar-headed Goose, Tufted Duck, Ruddy Shellduck, Common Pochard, White Wagtail, and Blue Throat, a small passerine bird.
Notably in December 2014, after getting positive reports of sera samples of ducks in Sukhna Lake, bird flu was declared by Government of India here. After culling of nearly 90 ducks at the lake following the detection of flu, the UT Administration had issued orders putting ban on the entry of people to city’s prime tourist spot- Sukhna Lake and surrounding areas for more than a month’s time in December 2014.
Dr Kanwarjit said, “With its proactive approach and effective surveillance and monitoring at field level, the virus of H5N1 was controlled at its source level by the Animal Husbandry Department from spreading further as per Government of India guidelines in 2014. Since then, the Department is carrying out regular surveillance of bird flu or diseases caused by birds.”
Tejdeep Singh Saini, Director Animal Husbandry informed that the Centre has declared India Free from bird flu in September 2019. The Department is continuing the effective surveillance programme to maintain the area of union territory of Chandigarh disease free from such lethal infections which are zoonotic in nature, he said.
