Chandigarh:
After at least two dozen ducks died in Chandigarh's Sukhna Lake in a week, one out of the six carcasses sent to Bhopal for investigation, has been found positive for H5N1 or bird flu.
The Central Poultry Development Organization Chandigarh has been asked by the concerned Central Government Ministry to take all necessary precaution for prevention of ingress of disease as per the standard Surveillance Plan.
At present there is no assessment regarding any out-break of bird flu in Chandigarh. The situation is however, being very closely monitored by the central government's concerned office.
However, an emergency ward to handle bird flu suspected patients has been put in place at the sector 16 government hospital.
Apart from this as an absolute precaution and to counter any kind of adverse conditions, Chandigarh Administration have put in place the following measures even though there is no alarm or alert issued for the general public:
- The island area where the ducks are residing has been fenced and movement of ducks has been restricted.
- Police personnel as well as Forest Rangers have been deployed in the lake area to ensure that people are kept at a distance from the ducks and to prevent any direct contact.
- Assistance has been taken from Zoo authority of Chatt beer zoo for provision of feed to the ducks.
- Five R.R.T.s (Rapid Response Teams) teams are being formed and mobilized to counter any type of un-towards situation.
- A team from RDDL Jallandhar, Punjab led by Dr. Vinay Mohan expert in this field is already in Chandigarh.
- As a measure of precaution, boats that had to be repaired by CITCO have been asked to suspend operations temporarily.
- A control room has been established in the office of Joint Director, Animal Husbandry, Chandigarh Administration with Phone Number : 0172-270092, and Mobile Number :-93575-26960 for any type of information on the issue.
The administration has issued an appeal to the public to not panic.