2 days ago
Palladam poultry units seek upgrade of facilities at lab in Panickampatti
Poultry units in and around Palladam are in anticipation of upgrade of facilities at Poultry Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (PDDL) of the Animal Husbandry Department at Panickampatti near Palladam, established about six years ago to carry out testing of feed and water samples.
Out of ₹6.92 crore sanctioned for the PDDL, ₹4.24 crore was for the Poultry Disease Diagnosis Laboratory and ₹2.56 crore for establishing a laboratory for poultry feed testing, it is learnt.
The PDDL was sanctioned with BSL (Bio-safety level) II and GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) system under the National Agricultural Development Programme. It was established with the intent of carrying out diagnosis of poultry diseases through conduct of post-mortem, testing of droppings, blood samples and other specimens for major diseases, including viral diseases such as New Castle Disease, Infectious Bursal Disease, Infectious Bronchitis, Avian Leucosis Complex, and common bacterial diseases like Salmonella, and parasitic infestations..
The collective request of the hundreds of poultry units for upgrade of the PDDL in Palladam was made known to Minister for Information and Publicity M.P. Saminathan, District Collector T. Christuraj and senior officials of the Animal Husbandry Department when they carried out an inspection of the facilities at the PDDL on Thursday.
The poultry units, in particular, laid emphasis on establishment of incinerator to dispose of dead chicken, and adequacy of manpower and machinery at the PDDL.
The PDDLs carry out sero monitoring and surveillance for poultry diseases, covering both commercial and back yard poultry farms. Strict vigil over mortality and transport of poultry in view of preparedness for avian influenza is one of the major responsibilities of these laboratories, sources in Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University said.
At present, the poultry units continue to depend on the PDDL at Namakkal for these tests. Once the PDDL at Palladam is upgraded with the required manpower and machinery, it will be equipped to test serum samples as preliminary screening for antibodies against avian influenza and forward the positive samples to referral laboratories for further confirmation.
As per the 2019th census of the Animal Husbandry Department in Tiruppur region, poultry strength in the farm of backyard poultry was 10,97,579 and that of farm poultry 149,84,700. Tiruppur district is in the forefront in rearing of broiler birds under contract farming mainly in Palladam and Gudimangalam blocks, and Palladam has come to be known as a poultry hub with over 4,000 hatcheries and more than 50 broiler farms.
