The Blue Cross Society, Assam, a society for the welfare of animals celebrated World Veterinary Day on 26 April, 2008, Saturday in the auditorium of the College of Veterinary Science under the chairmanship of Dr T Rahman, president of the society, stated a press release. In this connection, a public meeting was held in which five distinguishhed veterinarians of the State, namely, Dr S C Talukdar, Dr K N Deka, Dr K C Sarma, Dr T Barthakur and Dr S N Bora were honoured with Pranimitra award by the society.

With the detection of bird flu in Bishalgarh, the Shipaijala Sanctuary is taking all measures to prevent any outbreak of the H5N1 virus. As a preventative step the authorities have sent blood samples of birds from the sanctuary yesterday for testing. Culling operation was on in full swing and all birds within a periphery of 5 KM of the affected area were being culled, except those in the sanctuary. According to an Animal Resource Department official, the Shipaijala Sanctuary inmates do not fall under the culling operation as it has many rare species.

Culling began today in bird-flu hit Nadilag and its surrounding areas of West Tripura district as the state government said neighbouring Bangladesh could be the possible source of infection. As the H5N1 virus was confirmed in blood samples of dead birds from Nadilag village by the High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal, the authorities started the operation, setting a target of culling 20,000 chicken in eight gram panchayat areas surrounding Nadilag in four days.

Australian veterinary experts were keen to conduct research into animal diseases in Pakistan under an agreement recently signed between Pakistan and Australia for the development of dairy technology and exchange of experts, said Dr David N.C. Gill on Thursday. Dr David, who is a member of the Australian team, which is on a study tour of Tandojam Central Veterinary Laboratory, said that they had detected many diseases in the livestock of the province and found it necessary to conduct research into the diseases.

Bird flu was reported in a new area in the virus-hit West Tripura district as culling operations began today to kill 60,000 birds in eight Gram Panchayat areas. Bird flu virus was detected in blood samples of dead birds from Nadilag village of Bishalgarh subdivision at the High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal yesterday, official sources said. Culling would begin at Nadilag after it was notified by the Central Government, the sources said.

The Tripura Government today asked the Animal Husbandry Department to start culling operations in eight villages under west Tripura from tomorrow in wake of a fresh outbreak of bird flu. Animal Resource Department Commissioner U Venkateswarlu said that blood samples of affected chicks sent to the High Security Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Bhopal, tested positive.

Even as the Tripura Government was fighting bird flu menace, the fresh outbreak of the disease was reported from Sidhai Mohanpur area, about 25 km from here. The area falls under the Indo-Bangladesh border and incidents of death of chickens and a few other birds were being reported from the area. However, official confirmation of the dreaded avian disease was still awaited though sources in the Animal Husbandry Department have found the presence of H5N1 virus in the blood samples of the sick birds.

The Tripura Government is continuing the surveillance operations throughout the State even though no fresh cases of bird flu have been detected after conclusion of the culling operations in Kamalpur subdivision of Dhallai district yesterday. This was stated by Tripura Animal Resource Minister Aghor Debbarma at a press meet at the State Secretariat here today. He said after culling of nearly 40,000 birds in Kamalpur, no fresh cases of Avian Influenza have been reported from any part of the state.

CAN a peacock, considered to be the National Bird, die of starvation? That too in a Lord Muruga Temple? ( Mythologically, Lord Muruga travels on Peacocks). Death of a peacock in Parry's Kandasami Temple, also known as Muthukumara Devastanam on April 3 ruffled many a feather as some persons in the know attribute the death to starvation. Veterinary doctors say it died of some poultry disease.

Nearly a month after four million birds culled, a fresh outbreak of avian influenza hit West Bengal's Murshidabad district early last month. The reappearance of the virus (see