Bird flu, or avian influenza, has resurfaced in Tripura barely within a month of declaring the country free from the disease and culling has started in villages within a 3-km radius of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research at Lambuchera in West Tripura district where it was first detected.
The culling has started from Friday morning and 14 centres have been set up in the nearby villages. In the duck firm of the ICAR alone 1,600 birds will be culled. ICAR joint director M. Datta said death of the birds first came to notice in December-end but culling started only after the high security Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Bhopal, confirmed the presence of H5N1. A ban was also imposed on selling and consuming of chicken and other poultry products in a radius of 10 km.