Culling takes on air of street warfare
NST, 23 Mar 2006

PARIT: It looks like street warfare. Rifles in hand and closing down on their quarry lane by lane and from house to house, those conducting the culling exercise at several locations in Perak were taking it one chicken at a time.

State Agriculture and Agro-based industry committee chairman Datuk Mohd Radzi Manan said the main problem was tackling the chickens in villages within a kilometre’s radius of where the virus was detected.
 

Radzi, who was at the Agriculture Training Institute in Titi Gantung on Tuesday night, said that in that area alone, an estimated 9,000 birds had had to be culled.

The culling teams, which include personnel from the health and veterinary departments and Rela members, also went to the Batu 30 village committee area, where there are two housing estates and four villages, and the Kampung Titi Gantung area, with eight villages, yesterday.

"The main problem is in these locations. Unlike the birds at the institute, which are within controlled premises, the chickens in the villages are reared in the open.
"So far, no chicken reared in a closed environment has tested positive for the virus."

Radzi said residents and villagers were co-operating by putting the chicken in coops for easy capture.

Culling was also done in Gantung and Changkat Legong, near Gopeng, on Tuesday.