Mumbai, March 29: The Maharashtra government today put together its biggest-ever contingent of rapid response teams (RRT) and health professionals to cull birds and carry out surveys in the six flu-hit tehsils of Jalgaon district.

Over 82 rapid response teams comprising 400 doctors and veterinary officials will be deployed across the district, officials said.

A group of 200 professionals from the public health department set off this evening to carry out door-to-door surveys within a 10-km radius of the infected villages.

During last month’s bird flu outbreak in Navapur in Nandurbar district, and Jalgaon, over 60 response teams were deployed for culling and over 150 health officials carried out surveys. The deployment this time is much larger as the infected area covers 288 villages and over 6 lakh people.

The Bhopal High Security Disease Laboratory had confirmed that eight samples sent from Jalgaon and areas bordering Madhya Pradesh had tested positive for the H5 strain. The Union animal husbandry department then notified the region as flu-infected and directed the states to carry out control and containment operations.

Jalgaon district collector Vijay Singhal convened an emergency meeting of his staff last evening and ordered immediate digging of pits for the burial of culled birds.

“We deployed 25 earthmovers to dig pits and digging operations are continuing. Half of the 82 RRTs have already arrived here. Instead of the earlier plan to start culling on Thursday morning, the RRTs will commence work tonight. They will also disburse cash compensation on the spot after culling is over,” Singhal said on phone from Jalgaon.

He said the culling target is approximately 2.1 lakh birds, out of which 72,000 belong to organised poultry farms.

“Materials necessary for culling have arrived. We have set up isolation wards in hospitals in these areas, but so far no admission of any suspected patient with flu symptoms has been reported.”

The samples ? among the 96 sent to the Bhopal lab ? labelled positive were collected from 13 tehsils in Jalgaon between March 15 and 18.

Officials said the seven-day incubation period for the flu’s possible spread among humans was over and there was no need for panic. “These areas have been notified for bird flu and as per the notification, we have to carry out the culling and health surveys,” an official said.

State animal husbandry commissioner Bijay Kumar said it would take five days to complete the culling and another seven days for cleaning and sanitisation.

He said he had finished the supervision of house-to-house mopping and disinfection in four tehsils of Jalgaon.