A three-pronged strategy aims at preventing and controlling influenza in birds: Center
Hyderabad: The Ministry of Fisheries, the Ministry of Livestock and Dairy (DAHD) of the Ministry of Fisheries, held a high-level meeting in New Delhi to discuss the recent outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) in the country.
Currently, there are still six event outbreaks in Telangana, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The active centers of Telangana are Ranga Reddy, Nalagonda and Yadadri Bhuvanagiri
The meeting, chaired by Dahd Secretary Alka Upadhyaya, convened scientific experts, poultry industry representatives and policy makers to review the current situation of avian influenza and explore strategies to curb the disease and prevent its spread.
Dahd consulted with stakeholders that a three-pronged strategy for preventing and controlling bird flu is determined. It covers stricter biosecurity measures, where poultry farms must enhance sanitation practices, control farm access rights and follow strict biosecurity protocols to minimize infection risk, strengthen surveillance and mandatory poultry farm registration to enhance disease tracking and control of all home farms, and must be registered in all township groups for one month within one month. The government has urged poultry stakeholders to ensure 100% compliance with the directive.
“Protecting our poultry sector is crucial to food security and rural livelihoods. Strict biosecurity, scientific monitoring and responsible industry practices are essential to our fight against bird flu,” Alka Upadhyaya stressed at the meeting.
Additionally, Secretary Dahd said it is necessary to develop predictive modeling systems for early warning and environmental monitoring, which will enable positive disease detection and response to minimize the risk of outbreaks and protect the poultry industry.
DAHD allows the use of the H9N2 (low pathogenic avian influenza) vaccine developed by Bhopal Icar-Nihsad, which is now commercially available.
A national study will evaluate the effectiveness of vaccination. The meeting also discussed extensively the possibility of allowing vaccine use in India against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Representatives of the poultry industry urged the government to explore vaccination as a strategy to prevent further economic losses in the industry.
Scientific experts stress that the currently available HPAI vaccines cannot provide sterile immunity, but only reduce virus shedding. Given these complexities, it is agreed that further scientific evaluation is needed before policy decisions are made. The meeting recommended a detailed scientific-based assessment to determine the feasibility of HPAI vaccination in India.
Following global best practices, research efforts have also begun to develop an Indigenous HPAI vaccine.
