Around 28,000 ducks perished in the district in the last two weeks.
The outbreak of avian influenza (H5N8) in Kuttanad Kerala is set to push duck farmers in the region into deep trouble.
The duck farmers, who have seen major setbacks in recent years in the form of bird flu outbreaks in 2014 and 2016, floods and recurring bouts of bacterial infections, fear that the latest outbreak would create lasting damage.
According to the Kerala Animal Husbandry Department, around 28,000 ducks perished in the district in the last two weeks, with another 34,602 birds (a majority of them ducks) set to be culled to check the spread of the disease.
With the pain of the devastation caused by the past bird outbreaks still fresh in the minds of farmers, they have urged the government to initiate steps for compensation. “Ducks in my farm started to show symptoms of the disease on December 19, 2020. They started to die a day after. Till date, I have lost 8,670 ducks. I have suffered a loss of around…