Govt Confirms Bird Flu, Alleges Cover-UpAdd to Clippings
[Tuesday, February 21, 2006 12:40:45 am]

MUMBAI: Confirming that it was bird flu and not Ranikhet disease that was killing thousands of chicken in Nawapur taluka of Nandurbar district in the past fortnight, state officials hit out at poultry giants for hiding the outbreak from the government.

"For at least two to three days before it came to our notice, birds had been dying in various poultry farms but we were not told about it," Maharashtra animal husbandry secretary Uttam Khobragade told TOI on Monday.

"The poultry farmers tried to deal with the crisis themselves. They buried the birds," he added. Khobragade was only repeating what government officials had told TOI on Saturday, but only more directly.

TOI had on Sunday quoted them as saying that there was "an attempt to hide the sudden death of chickens". "After we got wind of it, the administration initially thought it could be the seasonal Ranikhet disease, nevertheless we sent the samples to Bhopal for tests.