More than 450 hens die of labs confirmed bird flu; Govt on alert

Director of Animal Health and Production Institute, Kanke said that there is no fear of eating cooked chicken as the bird flu virus becomes inactive at boiling temperature.

Ranchi:More than 450 hens died of confirmed bird flu in the Government Poultry Farm House of Jharkhand's Bokaro. The dead hens were sent to Kolkata's lab where the final reports were made. The samples were also sent to High-Security Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab, Bhopal for a valid RT-PCR test for final confirmation of bird flu.

Director of Animal Health and Production Institute, Kanke said that there is no fear of eating cooked chicken as the bird flu virus becomes inactive at boiling temperature. In a conversation with ETV Bharat, Dr. Vimlesh Singh, Head of the Pathology Department, Ranchi Sadar Hospital and eminent physician, said that the locals should not be worried about the detected bird blu. Despite this disease being zoonotic, the risk of it occurring in common people or spreading among humans is less. Singh further said that families who own Poultry do have a risk.

Dr. Vipin Mahtha said that bird flu is a zoonotic disease and there are chances of spreading the disease from a living chicken. The government has provided PPE kits for the workers of the farm and has also restrained the entry of outsiders. The government have also directed to dispose of the dead hens by burying their corpse in at least a 2-meter deep pit. The infected districts have also been asked to take random and routine samples and send them for lab tests.