The Kerala cabinet on Wednesday decided to compensate poultry farmers in affected areas following the mass culling of birds in Alappuzha and Kottayam in the wake of the bird flu. The state government has decided that each bird over two months old will be compensated with Rs 200 and birds that are over one month old will be offered Rs 100. Further, the government will give Rs 5 for each egg that has been destroyed in the bid to curb the virus outbreak.
In the areas where poultry was culled in large numbers, the government will have a 10-day monitoring period following which officials will also test samples in the region.
The state animal husbandry department has given permission to cull 46,000 birds from affected areas and 12,000 more from neighbouring areas if needed. On Tuesday, the collectors of Alappuzha and Kottayam deployed special health squads which included doctors to carry out the culling.
In Alappuzha, Nedumudi panchayat, Thakazhi panchayat, Pallippad panchayat and Karuvatta, are the regions where bird flu has been reported. The examination of their samples at the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal confirmed the presence of the H5N8 strain of the virus in the birds.
Alappuzha Collector A Alexander has issued orders banning the use and sale of poultry eggs, meat and excreta of the birds (as fertiliser for agricultural purposes). In Kottayam, the avian influenza is reported in the 14th ward of Neendoor gram panchayat.
The Kerala government on Tuesday declared the bird flu as a state disaster. Bird flu has also been reported in other states like Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, but Kerala is the first to declare a state disaster.
Meanwhile, the Union Government has deployed a high level Central team from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to Kerala to review the public health interventions in the management of COVID-19 by the State Government and support the health authorities in their efforts.
Kerala has been reporting consistently high numbers of COVID cases in the past few weeks. A total of 35,038 new cases were logged during the last seven days. Around 5,000 new cases are added daily to the state COVID-19 tally.