Thousands of poultry farm birds are dying mysteriously in Sarpang. Reports of birds dying due to an unknown sickness started coming in on the 24th of last month.
Indra Badhur Basnet of Chhoekhorling village has lost almost half of the birds on his poultry farm. For the past five days, he has been picking up dead birds and disposing of them.
“It’s been five days now since the birds started dying. It started with two birds that fell sick and then the next day it was about 20 birds,” said Indra Badhur.
A total of 4,500 birds are reported to have died in Chhuzergang, Gakiling and Dekiling Gewogs. Nine Poultry farmers in these three gewogs have been affected. The farmers say the birds become weak, lose appetite and then die.
“In just three days, about 700 birds died here,” said Indra.
“I think about 1,200 birds died on my farm. I had to dispose of sacks of dead birds,” said Narapati Basnet.
Meanwhile, the livestock officials are trying to ascertain the cause of the illness in the birds. The farmers and livestock officials initially suspected a viral disease called Infectious Bursal Disease or IBD.
But tests carried out by officials ruled it out. The district livestock office said they are trying to find out if it was due to the bird feeds since they were all given commercial feed. They said feed samples have been sent to the National Centre for Animal Health in Thimphu for lab testing.
The test results are expected to come out tomorrow.
Karma Wangdi, Sarpang
Edited by Yeshi Gyaltshen
