AHMEDABAD: For the last 15 days, a team from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi, and a doctor from Safdarjung hospital are camping in Gujarat to investigate the actual source of the H5N1 virus causing bird flu in the state. The team has been monitoring the culling and quarantines implemented at the sites where the virus has been found.Since the outbreak was confirmed on January 2 in Ahmedabad's Hathijan area, bird flu has struck at Kamrej in Navsari district, Olpad in Surat and Daman. The team has been travelling to these places to study the outbreak. On Sunday, the team returned to Ahmedabad to monitor the quarantine activities within the 1-km and 3-km rings around the Memnagar site. The team includes Dr Mahesh Waghmare and Dr Pravin G from the NCDC and Dr A Mittal from Safdarjung Hospital.The first bird flu cases were reported at the premises of Asha Foundation in Hathijan. Nine birds, of 210 brought form Crawford market in Mumbai, had died mysteriously. The birds were brought from the pet bazaar and nearby slaughterhouse at Crawford Market. What perplexed the authorities is that Maharashtra's animal husbandry department has not encountered any unusual deaths of birds at Crawford Market since the Ahmedabad outbreak was reported.A batch of around 1,400 guineafowl brought from Allahabad were "healthy" according to the certificate issued by a veterinary doctor. These were seized and were then kept at the Hathijan and Memnagar NGO facilities.Authorities are also monitoring migratory birds—as this is the time of the year when lakhs of them roost in wetlands—and they are also potential carriers of the H5N1 virus. No unusual deaths have been reported among migratory birds either. Health commissioner J P Gupta said, "The Delhi team was in Daman when the second bird flu outbreak in Memnagar took place on January 11. The team will be here for more investigations," says Gupta.

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