It may have carried out bird culling in record time to contain an outbreak but the Telangana government is not resting yet. Surveillance for H5N1 is continuing with officials continuing inspection of farms, reports The Hindu.

Senior animal husbandry officials said six teams comprising 20 officers are visiting poultry farmers in 18 farms within a 10-km radius of Srinivas Reddy farms in Thorrur, the site of outbreak identified last week. They are being educated about symptoms of avian flu in poultry and have been instructed to report deaths immediately.

So far, there have been no reports of the disease in other farms but surveillance will continue until all farms are covered. A Government of India official from the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying also inspected the farm and interacted with villagers on Saturday, officials said.

“The joint secretary to the government inspected the site and asked us to remain vigilant. He was informed that there have been no other cases of bird deaths,” said State animal husbandry director, D. Vekateswarlu.

Meanwhile, discussions about the compensation for farmers whose birds were culled are still going on. Farmers said they were eagerly waiting as their livelihoods have been hit by the exercise.

“We heard a price of Rs. 90 was being discussed but are yet to receive word from the government,” said V. Balakrishna Reddy, the owner of Srinivas Reddy farm, where samples tested positive for avian flu.

Around 160,000 birds in five farms were culled last week, according to the report in The Hindu. Ranga Reddy district health authorities are also surveying the health of people within 10km of the site of outbreak.

Around 39,000 people of the population of 218,000 have been surveyed and no cases of human sickness have been revealed.