Bird Flu Alarm: Avian Research Units To Be Shifted To Bhubaneswar Outskirts

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to shift all bird research centres to the city outskirts. The decision follows the outbreak of bird flu in a poultry research farm on the premises of Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT) in Bhubaneswar.

Sources said the Animal Resources Development (ARD) Department decided this at a high-level meeting at Lok Seva Bhawan on Saturday.

They informed that the OUAT poultry research farm, the Central Avian Research Institute (CARI) near Kalinga Studio and another poultry research centre at Laxmisagar will be shifted to a new location at Chandaka on the city outskirts.

An OUAT official said the university will suspend poultry research for at least three months because all the chickens have been culled at the farm.

In 2018, the poultry stock and half of the equipment and office assets of the Central Poultry Development Organisation (CPDO) were shifted to Naraj on the outskirts of Cuttack during the expansion of the Kalinga Stadium. The incubators and the remaining office assets will also be shifted to CPDO’s new unit at Naraj soon.