The Jharkhand government has sounded an alert after bird flu cases were reported at a veterinary college-based poultry farm in Ranchi. The Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has asked the state to take all measures to contain its spread. Around 150 Guinea fowls died over the past 20 days at the farm. The presence of H5N1, a type of avian influenza A virus, was confirmed in samples sent to the ICAR-National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) in Bhopal.
A bird flu outbreak caused by the H5N1 strain has been reported in Bokaro, Jharkhand, leading to the death of around 250 birds at a government poultry farm. The outbreak was confirmed on March 7, prompting authorities to cull 46 birds and destroy 506 eggs at the farm. A 1-km radius has been declared an affected zone, where birds will be culled, and a 10-km radius has been designated as a surveillance zone, prohibiting the sale and purchase of poultry. This outbreak comes roughly a month after a similar incident in Ranchi, where 5,500 birds were culled.
Over 200 migratory birds were found dead in a lake at Gandheli in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, official sources said in Aurangabad Friday.
African swine fever has been reported from two farms at Mananthavady in Kerala's Wayanad district, officials said on Friday.
A nine-year-old lioness Neela and a male lion named Pathbanathan, aged 12 years, succumbed to COVID-19 earlier this month.
An Asiatic male lion being treated for Covid-19 succumbed on Wednesday, becoming the second carnivore to fall victim to the virus at the zoo near Chennai in two weeks, the first being a lioness.
After the outbreak of Nipah at a hamlet in Perambra last week, 16 people have tested positive, of whom 13 have died so far.
The Animal Husbandry Department has set up a state-level control room and sent its teams to the districts for effective monitoring, they said.
The outbreak of the infection, a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans, is suspected to be from an unused well in Perambra which was infested with bats.
Besides Uttar Pradesh, the other six states where bird flu is confirmed are Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat.
The Centre on Wednesday said Avian Influenza, or the bird flu outbreak, has been reported at 12 epicentres in four states -- Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh -- and advisories have been issued to contain further spread of the infection in poultry ducks, crows and migratory birds.
Despite a go-ahead from the Centre, the state government will not resort to culling of the pigs immediately and will adopt an alternate mechanism to prevent the spread of the highly contagious disease, Assam Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Minister Atul Bora said at a press conference.
Kerala health minister said of the 251 contacts, 54 are high risk contacts out of which 30 are healthcare workers.
Himachal Pradesh on Monday became the fourth state to report cases of bird flu after Rajasthan, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, with officials confirming that migratory birds found dead at Pong Dam Lake in Kangra district have tested positive for the dreaded avian influenza.
Delhi, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra on Monday confirmed bird flu cases, adding to the list of seven states -- Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh -- which had already reported avian deaths due to the disease.
The female tiger, named Nadia, is believed to be the first known case of an animal infected with COVID-19 in the US. It is suspected that she contracted the virus from a caretaker who was asymptomatic at that time.
The Centre said bird flu has been confirmed so far in Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat, and asked these six states to contain the disease as per the action plan.
Fresh bird deaths were reported on Tuesday, including over 900 from Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, amid cases of avian influenza in 10 states and union territories, with the Centre saying it has issued advisories on testing and maintaining sufficient stock of PPE kits for culling operations.
Culling of chickens and ducks began on Tuesday in parts of Kerala to contain the H5N8 strain of bird flu, while Jammu and Kashmir sounded an alert and started collecting samples from migratory species after Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh reported cases of the avian influenza.
For the first time in Tamil Nadu, a lion has died of coronavirus while nine others in the pride have tested positive for the infection at a zoo near Chennai, an official said.
"We raced against time and were the first country to report cases to the world," Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said in interviews to the official media over the weekend.
Why did the Chinese military take over the lab in Wuhan in end January? Did something go wrong? Claude Arpi glances at the mystery surrounding the origin of the coronavirus.
'The reason why people are underweight and short is because they have not got quality food during their growing years.'
By 2022, there is a plan to make an mRNA-technology vaccine, for which it has tied up with Canadian firm Providence Therapeutics.
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's customary address to the joining sitting of Parliament on the first day of the budget session.
'They don't always agree with our governments, their teachers or their parents, but it is the conviction of their ideas, and their determination to share them with the world that, I believe, is one of the greatest sources of hope for our planet.' 'The colonisation of space, understanding the very building blocks of matter and the universe, utilising our understanding of the human genome to conquer disease -- these are the tasks waiting for a fellowship of minds to realise new triumphs in our collective destiny.'
ITC is one of those few enterprises in the world that has traversed a 100 year journey and has yet managed to remain contemporary, relevant and competitive.
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