NEW DELHI The Delhi government today decided to notify the entire city as a "controlled area" after 32 more horses were diagnosed with glanders disease, Development Minister Gopal Rai said.
Once Delhi is declared a "controlled area", there would be ban on movement of all equines -- horses, donkeys, mules -- from outside Delhi and vice versa.
The government, last December, had banned the movement of equines in the city's west district for three months, as a precaution after the fatal glanders disease was found in seven animals at the Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre in Raja Garden.
Rai said that samples taken from people coming in contact with horses were also being tested.
The minister said that 2,000 samples from horses were recently sent to the National Research Centre on Equines (NRCE), Hisar, of which results for 1,000 have been received.
"Out of the 1,000 samples, 32 were found positive. The infection has been reported from 11 areas in Delhi. We will soon issue a notification to declare entire Delhi as a controlled area, and in those 11 points movement of horses will be restricted within an area falling in five km radius," Rai told reporters today.
The notification, he said, will also accompany an advisory which will apply to movement of horses participating in the Republic Day parade.
Samples of horses from the Army were sent to a facility in Meerut while those of the Delhi police were sent to NRCE for testing.
So far, no infection have been found in any of them, a senior doctor from the Delhi government's Animal Husbandry department said.
The notification would also be followed with advertisements in the mass media to make people aware and take precautions as well as look for signs of infection in horses.
Rai today held a meeting with top officials from the Centre, Delhi government, Army and police, and doctors from three municipal corporations and the New Delhi Municipal Council.
Glanders in an infectious disease, primarily affecting horses. It is transferable and equally dangerous to humans.
The disease is commonly contracted by consuming food or water contaminated by the nasal discharge of the carrier animals.