The laboratory report of poultry feed suspected to have caused the death of more than 79,000 birds in the country is now out. However, the analysis doesn’t provide a conclusive result as to what in the feed caused the death of the birds. The department of livestock referred a total of 75 feed samples from suspected batches of karma feed to different laboratories, both inside and outside the country in December last year.
Poultry farmers in the country started reporting about their birds falling ill and dying in mass back in November last year. An investigation by the department of livestock found that a suspected batch of Karma Feeds had caused the death and illness in the birds. However, to ascertain the real cause, the department sent feed samples to the laboratories. The department released the report yesterday.
“Out of 42 samples we sent to Thailand and India, only 21 samples came out to be positive for mycotoxins of which seven samples were above the permissible limit. Of the samples that were tested for heavy metals, pesticides and fungicides, microbial content, and nutrient content, these feed samples have met all the requirements and we didn’t find any issue except for one feed sample which had a higher content of chromium (heavy metal). we can’t conclusively say that the particular content of the feed was the problem that was causing the morbidity and mortality,” said Dr Sangay Rinchen, the Head of the Diseases Prevention and Control Unit at the National Centre for Animal Health under the Department of Livestock.
He also said that while the post-mortem report suggests feed contamination, the laboratory analysis does not substantiate this claim.
However, following the death of birds, Karma Feeds started compensating the affected poultry farmers in December last year. According to Chencho Wangyal, the Director of Karma Feeds, about 500 poultry farmers were compensated until now. The company spent more than Nu 61 M in compensation.
Choni Dema
Edited by Sonam
