Bird flu; customers asked to leave, hotels to be closed from 30th

ALAPPUZHA: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has banned the sale of poultry products in Alappuzha after bird flu was confirmed. The distribution of poultry products in hotels has been stopped. Hoteliers allege that officials turned away guests who had come to eat at the hotel.

Hotel owners have come out in protest against this. The decision has been taken to close hotels from the 30th of this month. Hotel owners say that FSSAI's action was taken without warning. Birds were being killed en masse in places where bird flu was confirmed in the state. About twenty thousand birds were killed in Alappuzha.

In the wake of bird flu reports in Alappuzha, culling is taking place in the panchayats of Thakazhi, Karthikappally, Karuvatta, Punnapra South, Ambalapuzha South, Cheruthana, Purakkad, Nedumudi and Kumarapuram. The use, sale and trafficking of ducks, chickens, quails and other domestic birds, their eggs, meat, droppings (manure), frozen meat and other products are banned for a week within the limits of the panchayats falling within the surveillance zone within a radius of 10 km from the epicentre of the panchayats where culling is taking place.