Samples sent from CPDO test positive for avian influenza
Members of Rapid Response Teams in association with personnel of Central Poultry Development Organisation (CPDO) culled nearly 20,000 poultry birds on Sunday.

The culling operation became essential after Bhopal based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) confirmed that samples of birds sent from CPDO tested positive for avian influenza.

BHUBANESWAR: Worried over the recurring incidence of electrocution, the State Government has decided to replace single and double poles with elephant-friendly electricity structures in districts where the jumbos are most vulnerable. To avoid the electrocution, narrow based lattice structures (NBLS) will be established in Dhenkanal, Angul, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj by replacing the single and double poles in all 11 KV and 33 KV lines in future.

BARIPADA: Mass culling of birds continued in Betanati block of Mayurbhanj district on Saturday following a Central directive to prevent the spread of avian influenza that was detected in Bahanada village. Official sources said as many as 8,800 birds had been culled and 1,189 eggs destroyed in 32 villages under this block in the last four days. A Central team consisting of two medical officers and an official from the State visited the affected area to supervise the culling.

BHUBANESWAR: The Government on Tuesday sent 10 more samples from Betanati in Mayurbhanj to the High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory (HSADL), Bhopal, for testing even as the region has been declared a restricted zone awaiting Central advisory for culling. A high alert has been issued by the Fisheries and Animal Resources Department (FARD) following confirmation of H5N1 virus in a poultry bird on Monday.

BARIPADA: Odisha's Mayurbhanj district, bordering Jharkhand, has been put on high alert to avoid poultry birds carrying HSN1 virus sneaking in from the neighbouring state, said Mayurbhanj CDVO Nityananda Das on Tuesday. Surveillance has been stepped up in the seven blocks of Raruan, Jashipur, Tiring, Bahalda, Gorumahisani, Saraskana and Jamda in the district. Movement of poultry birds within a radius of three kilometers of affected areas has been stopped, sources said.

Bhubaneswar: Bird flu has been reported from Betanati in Mayurbhanj district and Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district after Keranga in Khurda district. Following the death of large number of crows and poultry, the state government, which has sounded a high alert in the two districts, has sent blood samples of the dead from Mayurbhanj to the high-security Animal Disease Laboratory of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute in Bhopal to find out if they test H5N1 positive.

BARIPADA: Close on the heels of the outbreak of bird flu in Jharkhand, the bordering villages in the tribal-dominated district of Mayurbhanj have been put on alert. Veterinary officials have been asked to inspect chicken farms and hatcheries. Sources said scores of crows were found dead in Khunta on Monday pressing the panic button among the residents and the poultry farm owners. As mass death of crows was reported from Ranchi, Bokaro, Jamshedpur and Dumka in Jharkhand due to the H5N1 variant of bird flu, the poultry traders of Mayurbhanj belt close to these areas are a scared lot.

Ten miners operating in Orissa are in the dock for violation of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. Among them are Hindalco Industries, Essel Mining & Industries, Serajuddin & Company and B C Dagra.

The state government has asked the district collectors concerned to initiate legal action against the errant miners by invoking Section 19 of the Act, known as EPA.

Bhubaneswar: With Space Based Information Support for Decentralized Planning (SIS-DSP), a new space-based technology providing useful data, the Odisha government has planned to use it for micro-level planning and monitoring.
The new technique has been able to create large-scale GIS data on land cover, settlements, soil, slope, water sources, road net work, public utilities, communication network and healthcare, it was deliberated at a high-level meeting presided over by chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik at the State Secretariat here on Tuesday.

BHUBANESWAR/JAJPUR: With flood situation in four North Orissa districts remaining grim, the State Government on Saturday started air-dropping of food packets as 992 villages continued to be marooned for the second consecutive day.

Meanwhile, six persons died and another went missing in flood waters. While two persons died in Jajpur district, one each died in Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Mayurbhanj districts.

This apart, snakebite cases were reported from Kendrapara district.