After the outbreak of bird flu in November last year that devastated a major chunk of the duck population in Kerala, it is the turn of the turkey to fall victim to the avian influenza.
The confirmation of bird flu in a turkey farm at Kureeppuzha in the southern district of Kollam has been confirmed.
Following this, around 6,000 turkey chicks were culled.
However, since turkey is not widely reared across the State, the threat of the bird flu spreading is not severe.
The turkey had been very familiar to Kerala until a few years before. It was reared as an exotic bird by bird-lovers at a few places.
Demand for turkey meat and eggs has been going up steadily as many poultry farmers also took to turkey rearing. The reputation of turkey as a lean meat with lesser fat than in chicken meat also helped.
The outbreak of bird flu and the culling of the chicks at Kureeppuzha are not expected, as of now, to cause devastation to turkey farming in the State.