Sohoni said it will take some time to confirm if it’s the H5N1 strain which was detected in last year’s outbreak. However, speaking to The Indian Express, A C Mishra, director, NIV said that the H5NI strain had been confirmed.

As part of control and containment, the government has already killed the remaining birds in that farm and has disinfected it. Twenty teams will begin culling of an estimated 1.5 lakh birds tomorrow within a 5-km radius of the location, said Th Dorendra, director of veterinary and animal husbandry in the Manipur government. This operation could last five days, he said.

As per procedure, compensation for the loss of each bird will be paid. The region will then be disinfected and kept under constant surveillance to keep track of any infection to human life.

In addition, the government will carry out an intensive clinical and biological survey of the birds in a 5-10-km radius, said Sohoni. The Centre has already sent 40 health teams that will keep a watch on the 4.5 lakh people living in that area over the next 10 days.

The state government has made arrangements for the quarantine of members of the 20 squads that have been constituted for carrying out the culling, sources said. Each team will have a veterinary doctor and four field staff.

Incidentally, Manipur banned the import of poultry products from Myanmar following reports of avian flu outbreak in Yangon a couple of months ago; Nagaland, which shares a porous border with Myanmar, took preventive measures educating poultry farmers on bird flu.

... contd.