Pune: After Pune district reported the first case of bird flu from Nande village in Mulshi, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has now issued a toll free number 18001030222 if any carcasses of birds are found in the city.

On Saturday, District Collector Rajesh Deshmukh also declared an order stating that the one km area of Nande in Mulshi taluka and Boribel in Daund taluka are now infected zones. Thus, there will be a complete ban on sale, of poultry birds in the area while the transport of the poultry carrying vehicles will be halted too. Also, the rapid response teams have been directed to cull all birds within the proximity of 10 km of the aforementioned villages.

13 hens from Nande in Mulshi taluka and Boribel village in Daund taluka were reportedly found dead. The samples of those were sent to the Western Divisional Diagnostic Laboratory at Aundh. However, the samples were tested negative but the same samples which were sent to Bhopal were found positive. Dr Shivaji Vidhate, district animal husbandry officer of Zilla Parishad informed that over 300 hens will be culled to restrict the further spread of the flu in the region.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra state government, under the Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Diseases in Animals Act, 2009, has consulted all its powers on all the District Collectors within their local jurisdiction to call the area as ‘Alert Zone’ if reports any cases of the flu.

The Collectors can announce an area as ‘Alert Zone’ to safeguard necessary precautions and preventive measures in case of deaths in poultry birds. The government has also asked the owners of poultry farms and people to immediately inform deaths in crows, parrots or migratory birds in any village or of any unusual death of poultry birds in commercial farms. One can call toll free no. 18002330418 to provide the details.