Fresh outbreak of bird flu, Tripura to begin culling today

“We have decided to cull at least 10,000 birds in villages under eight gram panchayat areas which come under 5-km radius of the affected villages in Mohanpur. The police and district authorities have been asked to take a more tough stance against movement of birds,” an official said from Agartala.

Tripura, which shares nearly 856 kilometres of international border with Bangladesh, has witnessed avian flu outbreak for the second time in less than a month. It was on April 6 that bird flu was confirmed in Malaya gram panchayat in Dhalai district earlier this month, following which the authorities had culled over 40,000 birds, mostly poultry.

While state animal resource commissioner U Venkateswarlu held a high-level review of the situation arising out of the bird flu outbreak at Agartala on Wednesday, over 200 rapid response teams have ben already dispatched to the affected areas to start culling early morning on Thursday.