Bird Flu: 10,500 birds culled in Balod, India
A total of 10,500 poultry birds were culled in Chhattisgarh’s Balod district on Saturday following the confirmation of bird flu.
Chhattisgarh is the 11th state where avian influenza has been confirmed.
As a part of preventative action, the department eliminated 10,500 poultry birds in Gidhali, said K.K. Dhruv, Additional Director, Directorate of Veterinary Sciences.
To a query about cases of bird flu reported in other districts, he said by Saturday his department had not received reports of any further spread of the avian influenza. But if samples confirmed the infection, further action will be taken, Dhruv said.
Meanwhile, after the bird flu was confirmed, movement of poultry birds in the contaminated zone was banned at Gidhali and steps to curb human movement in the contaminated zone were implemented.
A 10-km range in Gidhali was notified as an area under observation, Dhruv said.
Courtesy of dailypioneer.com
Storms hit Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, Australia tearing down trees and power outages
Residents on the Sunshine Coast are cleaning up this morning after a short but severe storm tore through some suburbs, bringing trees down onto homes and leaving hundreds without power.
A quick burst of heavy rain and strong winds caused dozens of trees to be uprooted in Little Mountain, with gusts of up to 57 kilometres an hour recorded at the Sunshine Coast airport.
The State Emergency Service said they received 58 calls for help overnight, mostly in response to the wild weather in this area.
At the peak of the storm, more than 350 homes and businesses were without power, with dozens still disconnected on Sunday morning as crews worked to restore the system.
The highest rainfall totals were recorded at nearby at Bells Creek, which saw 70 millimetres in the past 24 hours, while Black Mountain, inland from Noosa, received 79 millimetres.
In Caloundra West, a trampoline was lifted and blown across several houses, crashing through fences.
Earlier, in Brisbane, day two of the Gabba Test cricket match was called off early as a storm rolled through the city.
The weather bureau is closely monitoring cyclone Kimi that’s developed off the Cooktown coast.
Meteorologist Harry Clark said the system is expected to bring heavy rain around the already saturated region, which is still recovering from Tropical Cyclone Imogen earlier this month.
A flood watch remains in place for parts of the state’s north.
Some areas that are still recovering from Tropical Cyclone Imogen earlier this month could receive rainfall of up to 200mm in the coming days.
“The flood watch is out for those areas between Cape Flattery and Ingham,” he said.
“It’s really largely because those catchments are very saturated from recent rainfall.
“At this stage, we’re expecting minor to moderate flooding to be possible, and particularly in those areas where flooding has recently occurred.”
Courtesy of abc.net.au
China builds 1,500-room isolation ward in just 5 DAYS over new coronavirus spike in Hebei province
Chinese city of Nangong has completed construction of a massive 1,500-room observation ward in just 5 days after a local outbreak of coronavirus was detected. Some 5,000 more rooms are expected to be completed next week.
The large isolation center was built on the grounds of a factory outside the city, in the north-eastern Chinese province of Hebei. The facility made up of prefabricated huts, has 1,500 rooms to house people suspected of having coronavirus.
Each room measuring 18 square meters, comes equipped with a bed, electric heater, sink and toilet. WiFi access is also available to brighten up the stay of the patients.
Construction work kicked off on January 10 after a local cluster of coronavirus was detected in the city. The 1,500-room ward is the first of six to be urgently constructed in the city to contain the outbreak. In total 6,500 rooms are scheduled to be built with all the facilities expected to be ready next week. Another 3,000-room isolation center is under construction in Hebei’s provincial capital Shijiazhuang.
As of late Friday, the province has reported 643 locally transmitted as well as two more imported cases of Covid-19, according to official figures reported by Xinhua.
All the recent coronavirus clusters have been primarily caused by travelers coming from abroad or contaminated imported goods, head of the National Health Commission (NHC) Ma Xiaowei said on Saturday.
“Since December 2020, epidemic clusters have occurred in Beijing, Sichuan, Liaoning, Hebei and Heilongjiang,” Ma said. “They mainly have the following characteristics. Firstly, they are all imported from abroad, caused by travelers from overseas, or contaminated cold-chain imported items.”
Courtesy of rt.com
At least 10 dead, hundreds injured in Indonesia landslide
At least 10 people have died as landslides caused by a strong and shallow earthquake hits Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island early Friday.
People fled their homes and more than 200 have been injured authorities said.
Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency has released several videos showing the devastating effect on lives and properties.
The videos showed people crying out for help. Children were reportedly buried under tons of rubble, while others got trapped in collapsed buildings.
A girl trapped in the wreckage of a house cried out for help and said she heard the sound of other family members in the rubble but unable to move out. “Please help me, it hurts,” the girl told rescuers, who replied that they desperately wanted to help her.
Thousands have been evacuated to temporary shelters. Rescuers say a lack of heavy equipment was hampering the operation.
On Thursday, a 5.9 magnitude undersea quake hit the same region, damaging several homes but there was no casualties.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 260 million people, is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
In 2018, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake in Palu on Sulawesi Island set off a tsunami and caused soil to collapse in a phenomenon called liquefaction.
More than 4,000 people died, many of the victims buried when whole neighborhoods were swallowed in the falling ground.
Courtesy of africanews.com
Missing Woman’s Car Buried Under 15 Feet of Mud in Gorge Landslide, Oregon, USA
Early Wednesday morning, a landslide near the small town of Dodson, Ore., in the Columbia River Gorge swept away 50-year-old Jennifer Camus Moore while she was driving. Two days later, the search continues, but officials no longer hold out hope she will be found alive.
The rescue teams believe they’ve discovered where her car came to a rest, and are actively working to uncover the mud and debris, which is estimated to be 15 feet deep, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. The teams have brought special equipment to safely locate the missing woman.
Courtesy of wweek.com
60,000 chickens infected with bird flu in Salahudin province, Iraq
Governor of Salahudin province in Iraq said Friday that bird flu was detected in the city of Samarra, while the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture confirmed that all protective measures were taken to contain the spread of the virus.
“The laboratory tests proved that poultry in Samarra, some 120 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, was infected with bird flu,” Ammar Khalil, governor of the province, said in a statement.
Khalil said that about 60,000 chickens were infected with bird flu in the city, calling on poultry owners and citizens in Samarra to be on the highest alert to confront the virus, according to the statement.
The Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture said in a separate statement that it had taken all protective measures to prevent the spread of the detected H5N8 strain of avian influenza virus to other poultry fields in Salahudin province.
It said that after the discovery of the infection in two poultry fields in Samarra, the ministry’s Veterinary Department held a meeting, and an emergency plan was approved to control the disease.
The ministry pointed out that all the chickens in the fields infected with the virus were culled, and the fields’ halls were sanitized, in addition to blocking and scanning 3 km of areas surrounding the fields.
Courtesy of xinhuanet.com
Storm Dumps 8 inches of Snow – Snarls Interstate, USA
A snow storm with blizzard conditions came through the state Thursday night and Friday, bringing at least 8 inches of snow and terrible driving conditions with it.
While officials with the Atlantic Police Department said there were no accidents in town, and Cass County dispatchers said there were few accidents around the county, travel was not advised, and there were numerous accidents on I-80.
Trooper Shelby McCreedy said early Friday afternoon that the State Patrol was not advising travel.
“Pott, Cass, Adair (counties) still have tow bans,” she said. “We have multiple lane blockages in Pott and Cass. We’re still sticking to the travel not advised.”
McCreedy said traffic on the interstate was moving slow because it was completely snow and ice covered, and the windy conditions were blowing snow across the lanes. She said visibility was “zero” in some places, and the travel advisory was going to stick around until the winds died down because conditions weren’t going to get better until that happened.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for eastern parts of Nebraska and most of the western half of Iowa until 6 p.m. Friday. The service reported 3 to 5 inches of snow in those regions was expected, along with high winds gusting up to 50 mph. Most of the eastern half of Iowa was also under a winter weather advisory Friday, with 1 to 3 inches of snow accumulation expected. The storm, however, dropped 8 inches of snow in the Atlantic area.
Area schools either had a snow day on Friday or held classes via remote learning, and school activities were cancelled. Numerous businesses were closed or closed early on Friday, and the Atlantic Library closed at 2 p.m.
Conditions are expected to remain cold and cloudy for the next few days. The National Weather Service said today’s high will be 29, but it will feel like 10 degrees. Temperatures will slowly warm up, but continue to be in the mid to upper 30’s throughout the week. Conditions will be partly to mostly sunny starting on Tuesday.
Courtesy of swiowanewssource.com
First bird flu death at zoo in Delhi, India
After the death, sanitisation and surveillance drills have intensified at the zoo to stop further spread of the avian influenza virus.
A brown fish owl kept in captivity at the Delhi zoo died earlier this week and tested positive for bird flu on Friday, director of the National Zoological Park (NZP) Ramesh Pandey said.
Sanitisation and surveillance drills have been intensified at the zoo and preventive measures are being taken to stop further spread of the avian influenza virus, Pandey said.
“The NZP witnessed death of a brown fish owl in its captivity and, therefore, the cloacal, tracheal and ocular swabs of the bird was sent to the animal husbandry department… which has been found positive for H5N8 avian influenza virus,” he added.
The samples were tested at the Bhopal-based ICAR-National Institute of High Security Animal Disease (NIHSAD), Pandey said.
The owl had died following a serological survey that was carried out by a team of officials from the zoo and Delhi’s animal husbandry department on January 11.
“Faecal droppings of free ranging birds and water samples of ponds in NZP were collected from different locations and sent for serological examination related to avian influenza,” Pandey said.
The director said the zoo houses captive and free ranging birds, including local migratory waterfowls and waders.
He said the NZP was following avian influenza-related protocol and guidelines issued by the Central Zoo Authority, the environment ministry and animal husbandry department, which have now been intensified.
“Birds in captivity have been isolated and are under consistent monitoring and care for their behaviour and health. Spray of lime, Virkon-S & Sodium hypochlorite, and foot bath of potassium permanganate, are being done on regular intervals every day,” Pandey said.
“Chicken feed to raptors and entry of vehicles inside the zoo had already been stopped, which is being further reinforced and intensified. Movement of staff and workers in the zoo is also being restricted and regulated keeping in view the virus threats. The NZP is already closed due to Covid-19 and is not open to the public,” he added.
Courtesy of indianexpress.com
Bird flu: 905 birds found dead in Maharashtra, India: tests underway
As many as 905 birds including 753 poultry birds were found dead in Maharashtra in a 12-hour period and samples have been sent to the labs to check if any of them carried the avian influenza virus, an official said.
Since January 8, 3,949 birds have been found dead in the state, said an official of the Animal Husbandry Department on Friday.
“A total of 905 birds were found dead in 12 hours ending 9.30 pm on Thursday. As many as 753 were poultry birds. The rest were crows, herons, sparrows, parrots, etc. Samples have been sent for bird flu tests,” he said.
Since the first cases of bird flu infection were reported in the state, 14,507 birds have been culled, he said.
To avoid the spread of infection, carcasses are put in a gunny sack and buried in a ditch lined with a layer of lime.
Courtesy of newindianexpress.com
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