Kerala bird flu outbreak | Flu among the feathers

The Pampa river flows gently, its water glittering in the heat January solar. A lush inexperienced carpet of paddy saplings stretches out for miles close to the water physique. But a sombre temper prevails on this picture-perfect setting at SN Kadavu, a village close to Karuvatta in Kerala’s Alappuzha district.

A levelled patch of uncultivated paddy discipline abutting a street alongside the village appears diseased, sprinkled with bleaching powder. A close-by board reads: ‘Warning! Bird Flu 2021 carcass burning site’.

Seated on a bench exterior a thatched construction near his two-bedroom home a couple of metres away from the culling website is Devaraj K.V., 52, a second-generation duck farmer. He appears shaken. Devaraj misplaced 9,240 geese, his solely supply of revenue, to avian influenza (H5N8) in a span of simply two weeks.

“It’s been a horrendous couple of seasons,” he says. With a watch on the Christmas market, Devaraj had purchased 8,240 one-day-old ducklings at ₹22 per chick from a hatchery at Thuruthy close to Changanassery in Kottayam district in August 2020. Two months later, he bought one other 1,000 egg-laying geese at ₹280 per bird from Valanchery in Malappuram district, all to assist recoup his enterprise that was reeling from the COVID-19-induced lockdown and the closure of eating places and eateries.

The ducklings had been hand-fed for the first 30 days. In the following months, the birds had been taken to the Chalunkal and Manthara paddy fields for foraging with the assist of seven labourers. “Things were going smooth. I had even struck a deal with poultry traders in Ernakulam to sell my ducks two days before Christmas when the bird flu hit like a bolt from the blue,” says Devaraj.

His geese began to fall sick on December 20 and commenced to die one after the other. In the subsequent couple of days, some 3,000 geese in his farm perished. The remainder of the birds had been culled by the authorities in the second week of January after the outbreak was confirmed in the Kuttanad area. Devaraj estimates his losses at ₹8 lakh.

Recurring outbreaks

The bird flu outbreak in Kuttanad, an enormous space of land reclaimed from the Vembanad Lake unfold throughout Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam districts, was the final straw for these farmers, who had been already struggling to return to phrases with the losses inflicted by the nice deluge of 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the third outbreak of avian influenza in the area in the previous seven years.

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The outbreak was detected in Karuvatta, Pallippad, Nedumudi, Thakazhi and Kainakary in Alappuzha district and Neendoor in Kottayam district. Following the mass loss of life of geese final month, the authorities despatched samples of useless birds to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal. Six of them examined constructive for bird flu. On January 5, speedy response groups had been despatched to the affected areas, besides Kainakary the place the illness was confirmed a lot later, on January 20. In three days, males sporting private protecting tools culled and burnt the carcasses of 57,687 birds, virtually completely geese, inside a one-km radius of the hotspots in the two districts to maintain the virus at bay. The groups destroyed 32,592 eggs and 5,078 kg of feed. The variety of geese that died on account of H5N8 stood at 25,265. In Kainakary, 349 geese, 297 chickens and two geese had been culled on January 20 and 21.

A Ramsar website and a delegated Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems, Kuttanad, nicknamed the rice bowl of Kerala, is certainly one of the areas the place farming is carried out beneath the sea degree. Duck farming to the villages here’s what tapioca is to the tropical hills of Central Travancore. Nearly all households in the area hold at the least a couple of of those birds of their backyards, that are a constant supply of revenue for a number of households and kind the crux of their meals safety, apart from providing jobs to a number of hundreds. It is widespread to see duck flocks quacking and waddling throughout roads and paddy fields post-harvest, being guided and goaded by ‘masters’, throughout the area.

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The transformation of duck rearing in Kuttanad from the flip of the twenty first century until the first bout of bird flu outbreak in 2014 was staggering. From 6.61 lakh in 2003, the whole variety of birds grew to the touch 9.94 lakh in 2007. On the again of a slew of duck rearing schemes rolled out by the State authorities, the sector grew additional over the subsequent 5 years as much as 2012, to take the bird depend to 17.09 lakh.

The bird flu outbreaks in 2014 and 2016, nonetheless, put the brakes on this flourishing sector. As per estimates by the State Animal Husbandry Department, round 15 lakh of geese and ducklings had been destroyed in Kuttanad throughout these outbreaks, whereas one other 4 lakh geese died in the floods of 2018, which additionally precipitated the destruction of eight lakh eggs apart from 75,000 ducklings. The flock dimension stored by the farmers started to fall and in the years between 2012 and 2019, the bird inventory grew by simply 3.96% to take the variety of birds to 17.76 lakh.

“We conduct duck farming throughout the year with a focus on Christmas and Easter. If ducks survive through the period, we can make some good money even after labour cost and expenses for medicine. But if there’s bird flu or a bacterial infection, our lives turn upside down. After 2014 and 2016, we are unfortunately reliving the difficult moment again. It will take some time to rebound from this crisis,” says Samuel K., a duck farmer from Pallippad who misplaced a couple of thousand geese to the flu outbreak.

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Traditional duck rearing

Unlike the fashionable poultry farming strategies of rearing birds indoors, duck farmers of Kuttanad rear geese in the open, though it makes the birds extra susceptible to illnesses like avian influenza. “Ducks are voracious eaters,” says Thomas Kutty, a duck farmer from Karuvatta. “It is not sustainable to hand-feed the birds beyond a specific period. Kuttanad with its vast paddy fields and backwaters is conducive for duck farming. Immediately after the paddy harvest, we move the birds to vast fields for feeding. We keep the birds on the move from one field to another until they are saleable,” says Kutty. According to him, permitting geese to forage fields is mutually useful. The geese get sufficient meals in the type of rice, worms and bugs, and the paddy house owners stand to get a couple of bucks. The ‘Kuttanadan’ geese (Chara and Chembally — two native breeds) reared like this are branded and are in excessive demand.

With a dramatic improve in the consumption of poultry protein over the final decade, Kerala is now experiencing an enormous hole between the demand and provide of duck meat. The costs rose consequently, from ₹160 to ₹210 per bird, present estimates obtainable with the Government Duck Farm, Niranam.

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While customers cope with larger costs, about 80% of ‘Kuttanadan’ geese grown by conventional farmers are actually offered for meat at the age of two.5-3 months — a pointy deviation from the earlier apply of sustaining the feminine geese for egg manufacturing.

“This is not at all an ideal situation since all the good quality birds are now sold for meat while the State looks to neighbours for duck eggs,” explains Thomas Jacob, Chief Veterinary Officer, Pathanamthitta.

Ban on poultry commerce

According to farmers’ associations, there are greater than 1,000 large duck farmers in the area, whereas a number of hundreds, together with small farmers, meat merchants and egg sellers, are allied to the sector. The bird flu has straight impacted solely round 30 duck farmers, nevertheless it has rattled the complete poultry sector in the area with the authorities regulating the commerce of meat and egg of geese, rooster and quail in a bid to tame the unfold of the illness.

The 24.14-km Alappuzha- Changanassery street has parrot inexperienced paddy fields and palm-studded backwaters on both aspect. Small stalls promoting ‘Kuttanadan’ geese, eggs and native fish alongside the street stand testimony to the agricultural custom of the place. However, after the outbreak, the merchants whose lives relied on wayside merchandising have closed the duck stalls. “We are not farmers, but small-time traders. We buy ducks from farmers and sell them for a small profit. The ban on poultry trade has upended our lives,” says Jose K., a dealer.

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The experiences of a bird flu outbreak in the area, which sits subsequent door to a few of the most famous worldwide vacationer locations together with Kumarakom, additionally got here at a time when the tourism trade was on the lookout for a revival after being in limbo because of the pandemic. In a fast fire-fighting act, most eating places and houseboats working in the area have stopped serving rooster and duck delicacies to company.

“Enquiries seeking the status of the outbreaks have already begun pouring in though we have got no cancellations so far. The bookings, however, will be affected if the scare continues for a longer time as had happened in 2014,” says K. Rupesh Kumar, coordinator, Responsible Tourism, Kerala.

Huge losses

At Vaisyambhagom, 9,000 totally grown geese together with drakes, wholesome and unaffected by the outbreak, belonging to Thankachan Kaithakalam, are having fun with their time in the Pookaitha river. “These birds were to be sold in the new year. The outbreak and subsequent restrictions have changed everything,” says the veteran duck farmer. He had offered 12,000 birds on the eve of Christmas however is now expending ₹25,000 every day to feed the remaining flock. “The puncha paddy cultivation season is on and there are hardly any fields in the region for ducks to eat from. The only way to maintain the birds is to provide them with compounded feeds. In normal conditions, rearing a duck for meat costs around ₹175, while a 120-days-old duck could fetch ₹250. All the money I am spending now on the flock is additional cost. If the ban is to remain in place, I will have to suffer huge losses,” says Kaithakalam. He has with him 30,000 duck eggs, which he says “will spoil within days” with no correct facility to retailer them.

Carcasses of culled birds are burnt at Kuttanad in Kerala’s Alappuzha district.  
| Photo Credit: P.R. SURESH