By IANS, [RxPG] Chicken cooked the Indian way - at high temperatures and in gravy - is absolutely safe notwithstanding the country's first reported cases of avian flu but steaks should be avoided, a health official said Sunday.
"If chicken is cooked the Indian way, it is absolutely safe for eating. But steaks, particularly the rare and medium varieties, should be avoided," N.K. Ganguly, chief of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), told a news briefing.
"Look at it this way," said Additional Health Secretary Deepak Gupta. "Both Dr. Ganguly and I had chicken for lunch this afternoon. It's perfectly safe if cooked properly."
"In any case," pointed out Upma Chawdhry, additional secretary in the animal husbandry department of the agriculture ministry, "only chicken from the affected area poses a hazard.
"We have quarantined the area and will ensure that no birds are taken out of there."
She was referring to Navapur village of Nandurbar district in Maharashtra, from where India's first confirmed case of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza was reported Saturday.
Authorities in Maharashtra Sunday began culling tens of thousands of chickens to prevent the deadly bird flu virus from spreading, even as other Indian states braced themselves to fight the global disease.
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Indo-Asian News Service
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