As the authorities continue to discover masses of dead birds as the avian influenza (bird flu) is sweeping across the country and alarming public which is already rattled by the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Ever since the late December 2020, thousands of geese, ducks, crows, pigeons and other birds have been found dead in 9 states across India, starting from India’s southern tip Kerala to the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh in the north. However, so far no human infections of bird flu have been reported in the country.
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Bird flu spreads to 9 states in India
As per the latest reports from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has informed that the medical officials who have been working to quash the new epidemic have detected 2 different strains of avian influenza: H5N1 and H5N8. As per these officials, the bird flu virus was carried into India by migrating from Central Asia and then later spread to poultry. Hundreds of thousands of birds have died
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Officials working to quash the new epidemic have detected two different strains of bird flu: H5N1 and H5N8. They believe the virus was carried into India by birds migrating from central Asia before spreading to poultry, prompting officials to cull hundreds of thousands of birds in states including Maharashtra, Delhi, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
Country taking steady steps to curb avian influenza
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Acting upon the rapid spread of bird flue across the country, the Central and the state government have taken considerable measures to curb the same. In the 9 states where the influenza cases has been confirmed have banned the selling, importing and exporting of bird meat including eggs. The areas such as poultry farmers, etc where dead birds were detected with this bird flu have been contained successfully. After all the measures, the scientists say that the the extent of spread of spread bird flu in India still remains unknown.
All of this comes amid the Coronavirus outbreak in India. Earlier on January 3, the government of India approved Two vaccines: Serum Institute of India (SII) ‘Covishield’ and Bharat Biotech’s ‘Covaxin’ for emergency use. The world’s largest nationwide inoculation drive in India against COVID-19 kick started on January 16 and healthcare workers across the country are being administered with the vaccine shots.