House-to-house survey from Tuesday

BHUBANESWAR: The Central Poultry Development Organisation (CPDO) and the OUAT farm were on Monday cleansed of their entire poultry stock as culling operations have now veered in community level bird population. Around 29,000 birds in the CPDO were killed along with 9,000-odd in the OUAT farm under the exercise that went on well into the night. Culling was initiated at the ward-level under the impact zone carved out of the 3-km radius of the CPDO. The impact zone has 29 of the 60 wards of the Capital. As many as 500 birds were killed as operations in two wards commenced. The operations would be intensified on Tuesday  to cover all the wards and an estimated 10,000 poultry birds are to be annihilated. The Khurda district administration, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services (AHVS) have pressed in about 200 personnel to undertake the culling as well as surveillance in the impact zone. Disbursement of compensation among the affected people, the farmers and the sellers would start from Tuesday. The personnel undertaking the culling operations faced opposition at some places but the issue was resolved with people being made aware of the risks and threats. “The work would not stop at culling only. There would be a three-month-long continuous interventions like disinfection of poultry farms and vendors, sanitisation along with surveillance. Household screenings would be undertaken and no poultry, eggs and allied products would be allowed to be produced or sold in the area,” Director, AHVS department, Benudhar Das, said. Mass awareness drives and house-to-house survey would also be initiated from Tuesday onwards by the Health Department. The focus would be on slums in the 29 wards under the impact zone as these pockets are high on vulnerability on account of population density and unhygienic living and surroundings. The population in the slums is also known to rear poultry on its own. “More than 3 lakh population in the 29 wards would be kept under constant watch with heavy deployment of health workers, Anganwadi workers and Asha karmis. Disinfection and sanitisation, particularly in the slum areas, would be undertaken rigorously for the next 10 days. Follow-up measures would be initiated after evaluation after the watch-period. Hospitals, medical establishments and doctors have been put on alert for any eventuality”, State Nodal Officer of Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) Bikash Patnaik said.