Re: India: Mysterious illness rocks poultry business
VISAKHAPATNAM: Sudden death of lakhs of birds has rocked the poultry industry in coastal districts threatening the very survival of small and marginal farmers. As many as 40 lakh chicken died in the last six months, with half of the deaths occurring in the last one month alone.
snip
Farmers are flummoxed as they are still unsure of the reason for the sudden deaths. Even veterinary doctors have not diagnosed the problem.
snip
the worst affected farmers hail from East and West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Visakhapatnam districts, where about 40 lakh birds died in the last six months.
In the last one month alone 20 lakh birds died in poultry farms located in East and West Godavari districts. The farms in areas surrounding Tanuku in West Godavari, and Amalapuram in East Godavari, are the worst affected.
There is no mechanism to monitor the number of bird deaths. But Chowdhary believes that 40 lakh is a conservative estimate based on reports he has received from poultry farms. A thorough probe into the issue would put the number of deaths anywhere around 90 lakh birds.
K Narayana Raju, a farmer from West Godavari, points out that the birds die all of a sudden. The birds are usually in a healthy condition, but if one of them dies, other chickens in the cage too die within a few hours.
snip
We have heard that some private agencies have taken samples for testing, but we do not know what happened to the results.
Comment: Confirmation that this is not due to H5N1 or other bird flu is warranted. The fact that this is in an area of very poor farmers is an additional concern; culling would plunge the area into dire poverty (which may be why they have not apparently looked too hard), and also if this is an H5N1 it is in an area where human infections would go unnoticed. Few could afford the necessary medical care, and state hospitals will not look for bird flu if it is not formally recognised in birds. This is the sort of scenario where full human adaptation could easily occur unnoticed.
