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Friends, relatives are scared of visiting us: Manipur?s bird flu family is counting its losses
Samudra Gupta Kashyap
Imphal, July 26: Fifteen years ago, Ira Singh?s family expanded their backyard poultry into a commercial proposition to enhance the income of a joint family of 15 members.
Bird flu in Manipur, only one farm so far, no human casesAll-alert on bird flu scare in ManipurFirst vaccine against avian flu gets US approval India bans import of poultry from bird flu-hit nationsBangladesh confirms first bird flu case
Rad Links
As avian flu wiped out their source of income in one day, the Singhs are shattered. ?We have been ruined,? said Boy Singh (30), the youngest of six brothers, all of whom have been heavily dependent on the poultry farm.
?The chicks are gone. We have lost at least Rs 20,000 in one go,? he said, pointing out there was no insurance cover for the farm. The Singhs, now almost christened as Manipur?s first bird flu family, who live in the Chingmeirong West locality in the heart of the state capital are not the only family affected. At least 500 familes in and around the area are likely to be hit when around 1.5 lakh chickens will be culled in the next three-four days.
In fact, culling has begun this afternoon, with 17 Rapid Response Teams fanning out to eight localities within a five-km radius of Chingmeirong West with a target of roughly 28,000 fowls on the first day.
State Veterinary Department Director Th Dorendra Singh is personally moving from one locality to another along with AB Negi, joint commissioner in the Union Agriculture Ministry, to monitor the culling.
?Friends and relatives are now scared of coming to our house. Only a few neighbours have been coming since our chicks died of suspected bird flu,? said Chandrajini Devi, wife of Kumar, the eldest of the six Singh brothers.
The Singhs, in fact, had no idea that bird flu had arrived when 15 fowls died on one single day earlier this month. ?It was only on July 7 when we took two sick fowls to the veterinary hospital that suspicion began. By July 15, as many as 132 were dead,? recalled Boy Singh.
The government claimed it reacted fast. Samples were sent to the Bhopal and Pune labs on July 17 while a medical team rushed to Chingmeirong and prescribed Tamiflu capsules to the 15-member family as well as a neighbouring six-member family. ?A medical team has been coming regularly to record our body temperatures. They also took our blood sample but we don?t know what they have found,? said Honey, Chandrajini Devi?s daughter, who is a graduate.
The family is also worried the compensation announced by the government was too little. ?We have heard they will give us only Rs 30 per broiler, whereas the market rate is at least Rs 80 per kg,? said Boy Singh.
The family had bought the chicks that died of avian flu - confirmed as of the fast-spreading H5N1 strain - from the government-owned Central Poultry Farm at Mantripukhri on the outskirts of Imphal. ?It is a fact that they purchased the chicks from the government farm in March. But what is baffling us is that none of the other 800-odd farmers who also regularly collect chicks from the same farm have reported any death,? said an official.
Samudra Gupta Kashyap
Imphal, July 26: Fifteen years ago, Ira Singh?s family expanded their backyard poultry into a commercial proposition to enhance the income of a joint family of 15 members.
Bird flu in Manipur, only one farm so far, no human casesAll-alert on bird flu scare in ManipurFirst vaccine against avian flu gets US approval India bans import of poultry from bird flu-hit nationsBangladesh confirms first bird flu case
Rad Links
As avian flu wiped out their source of income in one day, the Singhs are shattered. ?We have been ruined,? said Boy Singh (30), the youngest of six brothers, all of whom have been heavily dependent on the poultry farm.
?The chicks are gone. We have lost at least Rs 20,000 in one go,? he said, pointing out there was no insurance cover for the farm. The Singhs, now almost christened as Manipur?s first bird flu family, who live in the Chingmeirong West locality in the heart of the state capital are not the only family affected. At least 500 familes in and around the area are likely to be hit when around 1.5 lakh chickens will be culled in the next three-four days.
In fact, culling has begun this afternoon, with 17 Rapid Response Teams fanning out to eight localities within a five-km radius of Chingmeirong West with a target of roughly 28,000 fowls on the first day.
State Veterinary Department Director Th Dorendra Singh is personally moving from one locality to another along with AB Negi, joint commissioner in the Union Agriculture Ministry, to monitor the culling.
?Friends and relatives are now scared of coming to our house. Only a few neighbours have been coming since our chicks died of suspected bird flu,? said Chandrajini Devi, wife of Kumar, the eldest of the six Singh brothers.
The Singhs, in fact, had no idea that bird flu had arrived when 15 fowls died on one single day earlier this month. ?It was only on July 7 when we took two sick fowls to the veterinary hospital that suspicion began. By July 15, as many as 132 were dead,? recalled Boy Singh.
The government claimed it reacted fast. Samples were sent to the Bhopal and Pune labs on July 17 while a medical team rushed to Chingmeirong and prescribed Tamiflu capsules to the 15-member family as well as a neighbouring six-member family. ?A medical team has been coming regularly to record our body temperatures. They also took our blood sample but we don?t know what they have found,? said Honey, Chandrajini Devi?s daughter, who is a graduate.
The family is also worried the compensation announced by the government was too little. ?We have heard they will give us only Rs 30 per broiler, whereas the market rate is at least Rs 80 per kg,? said Boy Singh.
The family had bought the chicks that died of avian flu - confirmed as of the fast-spreading H5N1 strain - from the government-owned Central Poultry Farm at Mantripukhri on the outskirts of Imphal. ?It is a fact that they purchased the chicks from the government farm in March. But what is baffling us is that none of the other 800-odd farmers who also regularly collect chicks from the same farm have reported any death,? said an official.
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