Mumbai: Bird flu has made its impact in Maharashtra after test reports confirmed the deaths of over 900 hens amid the infection in the Murrumba village in Parbhani district, officials said on Monday.
Animal Husbandry Minister Sunil Kedar on Monday said that contrary to rumours there is no ban on sale of poultry products like eggs or chicken as of now and the state government is in a state of high alert.
The state health authorities held a high-level meeting of officials from different departments to assess the situation arising out of the new threat to both animals and humans amid reports of similar poultry birds' deaths from various districts.
Also read: Now Maharashtra hit by bird flu; dead poultry bird samples test positive in Parbhani
"The samples from Parbhani were sent to Bhopal (ICAR-NIHSAD) and the news is not good," said Kedar, even as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has summoned an urgent meeting to discuss the bird-flu situation this evening.
The bird flu outbreak has hit the sales and consumption of eggs and chicken and other poultry products in a big way in Maharashtra, with prices going down by nearly 35-50 per cent. Concurrently, this has led to a shift in consumption with people opting for fish products which have shown rising demand and prices moving up.
Also read: Bird flu in Maharashtra: Eggs and chicken safe to consume amid Avian Influenza?
Meanwhile, the Delhi Animal Husbandry Department also confirmed that all the samples sent to a laboratory in Bhopal have tested positive for bird flu. Delhi has now become eighth state in India to witness the spread of bird flu. Besides Maharashtra, the other states hit by the flu include Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana.
(With inputs from IANS)
