Alarm bells are ringing among Jharkhand government officials after the recovery of carcasses of crows and Indian myna at Pokharia village in Shikaripara block of Dumka district, around 310 km north east of capital Ranchi.

Bird flu has been confirmed in 10 states so far.

As the carcasses were recovered at a field in Pokharia village at around 8am on Monday, the Dumka animal husbandry officer, Dr Awadesh Kumar Singh, immediately sent a message to the animal husbandry unit in Ranchi and following directive arranged for PPE kits and other accessories to collected tracheal and cloacal swab from the carcasses.

“The samples of one crow and seven mynas have been collected and sent for test at the livestock research centre lab (at Kanke in Ranchi) and would again be sent for confirmation at the regional diseases diagnostic laboratory in Belgachia (Calcutta) and if the reports are positive for Avian influenza the samples would be sent for final confirmation at the National Institute of High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal to identify the strain of the virus,” said Dr Singh.

The district animal husbandry officer further said that no bird deaths have been reported anywhere else in any other village or block of the district.

“There are no external symptoms of death due to bird flu but we are not taking any chances and sent the samples for confirmatory tests. No death of any avian species has been reported anywhere else in the district. Even in the Pokharia village no deaths have been reported anywhere else. We assume that it might be due to some local development. But everything would be clear after the lab report,” said Dr Singh.

Meanwhile, acting on the directive of the Dumka deputy commissioner B. Rajeshwari, poultry products coming from other districts and neighbouring Bengal are being strictly monitored.

“We are regularly holding meeting with wholesale poultry suppliers to inform immediately about any symptoms of bird flu from poultry products brought from other district or other states like Bengal so that sample can be arranged to be sent for test,” added Dr Singh.

The samples from four crows found near Jubilee Park in Jamshedpur is yet to arrive with the animal husbandry department.

“It takes nearly a fortnight for reports to come from the laboratory and we are yet to get any reports so far about the samples from crow carcasses. No other death of bird species has been reported from anywhere else in the district or even in neighbouring districts,” said Jamshedpur animal husbandry officer Dr Rajesh Kumar Singh.

The state animal husbandry unit director Nancy Sahay said that they are prepared to handle any situation.

“So far there have not been any deaths of birds in any of our neighbouring states but we are taking all precautions as safety measures. We are prepared to handle any situation and have stock of animal vaccines in our stores.

“All the standard operation procedures have been communicated to the district animal husbandry officers across all the districts. We have appointed a nodal officer for bird flu and a contact number to address any such issues 24x7,” said Sahay.