By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS
Imphal : Ibemcha Singh and his wife Banalata are distraught after authorities culled 1,500 of their chicken as part of a massive drive following the outbreak of bird flu in Manipur.
"We are almost doomed as this was our only source of livelihood. We don't know how we are going to survive now…it is a massive blow to all of us," Singh, a poultry farm owner on the outskirts of Imphal, told IANS.
Singh and his family of four have been into poultry farming for more than a decade now and earned about Rs.20,000 a month on an average.
"I know the chicken are being culled because of the virus, but this is like a curse for people like us who are surviving on poultry for the better part of our lives," said a visibly shattered Banalata.
Like Singh, there are scores of families whose lives are hit hard by the outbreak of the bird flu.
"Me and my family had a shop in Imphal selling chicken. Now selling of chicken is banned and we are almost penniless for the last few days," said Basanta Singh, a chicken dealer in the historic Khwairamband bazaar in Imphal.
The state government Wednesday sounded a general alert across Manipur and banned the sale and purchase of poultry after the Indian health and animal husbandry departments confirmed that tests carried out on chicken that died at the Chenngmeirong farm near Imphal had tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu.
The farm owners were being paid Rs.30 for a chicken culled and Rs.10 for a chick as compensation. "The loss in terms of money is immense as lots of investments have gone down the drain," said Irene Devi, another poultry farm owner.
The authorities have planned to cull some 160,000 poultry, including ducks and chicken, from an estimated 800 farms in the area.
"The process of culling is on and we expect to complete the task by this weekend," said K. Gopal, nodal officer of the Animal Disease Control Programme in Manipur.
About 20 Rapid Response Teams with five members in each group led by a veterinarian is involved in the culling.
Health officials said there were no immediate reports of humans contracting the virus although they have put on medication about a dozen workers of the poultry farm where the deaths were reported.
"We have put the workers on Tamiflu and are keeping a close watch on their health status. Health checkups are on and we are monitoring the situation in and around the farm area," a health department official said.
There are an estimated 60,000 people residing in the five km radius around the farm where the virus was reported.
There has been no reported case of bird flu in other states of the northeast, but the spread of the virus in Manipur has led to panic in the region with authorities in the adjoining states of Assam, Tripura, Nagaland and Mizoram, sounding a general alert and banning import of poultry. Across the international border, Myanmar has also banned import of chicken from Manipur.