Coimbatore: Centre has decided to set up four laboratories in the country to detect the avian influenza virus and appointed a United Nations Agency for this purpose,a top official in the Union Animal Husbandry said.

The tender process for setting up the labs would be completed by February 2009 and work expected to commence by June 2009,Arvind Goshal, Joint Secretary, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, told an interactive session on Bird Flu,here today.

Such samples cannot be tested in ordinary labs and it was mandatory that they should meet biosafety standards while testing them for detecting the virus.

All the laboratories, including one in Namakkal in Tamil Nadu, with highest number of chicken and eggs, were likely to become operational by the middle of 2010,Goshal said.

The bird flu outbreak was reported in 15 districts of West Bengal and two districts in Assam and Tripura in June 2008,he said, adding large number of birds were culled during the period,which cannot be considered as cruelty to animals .

The disease was reported again in West Bengal and Assam in November-December and Government had taken all precautionary steps to check the spread to other places, he said.

The collectors of six districts of Western Tamil Nadu, inclding Coimbatore and Namakkal participated in the session.

Leena Nair,Principal secretary, Animal Husbandry, Tamil Nadu asked the collectors to convene meetings every fortnight and monitor the situation.
Source : PTI