Guwahati, Dec. 18: The Assam veterinary department today said the culling process would be completed by tomorrow while the affected districts will be under surveillance to prevent recurrence of bird flu.

Ashiwini Kataki, the director of the veterinary department, said tonight that rapid response teams would carry out the final round of the culling process at Nilibari in Chirang district tomorrow.

The latest detection of bird flu was at Kharghuli here and some parts of Barpeta and Bongaigaon district yesterday.

“Our job is far from over even after the culling process is done as we will begin surveillance of the affected areas. After about a month, our teams will visit the affected areas and collect blood samples from poultry, if any is left there, to find out their status,” Kataki said.

The veterinary department has culled nearly 4.5 lakh poultry till yesterday since bird flu was first detected in the Hajo area of Kamrup district last month. Seven districts have been affected by the flu.

Official sources said Dispur has come up with an alternative source of livelihood to offset the losses suffered by families during the outbreak of bird flu in Kokrajhar and Dhubri districts in February this year.

The government has sanctioned Rs 3 crore to help the nearly 12,000 affected families. As part of the scheme, a pair of goats or pigs would be distributed to the families, for sustenance.

The directorate of veterinary sciences has already started floating tenders for suppliers of goats and pigs.

Kataki said the government is planning to launch the scheme soon through the respective deputy commissioners.

This scheme goes beyond the compensation of nearly Rs 30 lakh paid to the affected people because of culling.

“The whole idea is to help the families by providing an alternative source of livelihood, some kind of relief because most of these families depended on poultry and its products for their sustenance to a large extent. Instead of breeding poultry, they can now rear goats and pigs, which do not get affected like the birds by avian influenza. During the outbreak in the two districts, they lost the birds because of culling. Some 12,000 families were affected,” he said.