Imphal, February 27: With the fear of a bird flu outbreak raising alarm amongst the people, the question doing the round is how well prepared is the State Government to handle the situation, if the bird flu lands in Manipur ? A little probing here and there by The Sangai Express has brought to light that a report sought by the Union Ministry of Agriculture from the State on the geographical information system of poultry farms in India on November 2 last year was never responded.

The Centre's missive came in the wake of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, an international body under the United Nations, asking the Union Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry and Dairying to furnish information with regard to bird flu surveillance.

The missive from the Centre to the State Government was sent by the Joint Commissioner of the Union Agriculture Ministry, M Ahmed.

Under the directives of the FAO, the Centre had also sought reports on poultry farms under certain categories such as the poultry farms with a strength of over 2 lakhs birds, farms with 20,000 birds and district wise break up of poultry farms.

The State Veterinary Department did issue an official circular in this connection but no exhaustive report was received.

However some sketchy reports have been gathered by the State Poultry Specialist and Managing Director of Poultry Federation, Manipur, Dr K Rashbehari.

According to the information gathered by Dr Rashbehari, there are 19 poultry farms under the popular hotel, OK Hotel, 35 under the Modern Feed Agency and 16 under the Ramkrishna Feed Agency.

The report also mentioned the existence of 62 primary co-operative society and 15 individual holdings under the Poultry Federation, Manipur.

District wise reports were not received.

On the steps being taken up by the State Government, a well placed source informed The Sangai Express that a Rapid Response Team has been formed.

Two teams consisting of five doctors each have been formed for culling if and when it becomes necessary, said the source.

Another step that has been taken up is the decision to form a District Monitoring Committee with the respective DCs as the Chairman and the Joint Directors of the Veterinary Department as member secretaries, said the source further.

Manipur imports a large number of chickens and eggs, both for consumption and hatching from other States. The source informed that day old chicks are brought in from Kolkata, Siliguri and Guwahati.

Eggs for hatching purposes are brought in from Maharashtra, where the outbreak of the current bird flu was first reported while eggs for consumption are brought in from Andhra Pradesh.

About 2 to 3 lakhs of one day old chicks are brought in to the State in a month while 10 truck loads of eggs for consumption are brought in every month.

As precautionary measures, all inter-State movement of birds has been stopped.

The matter will be discussed at the Chief Minister's level soon.

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