53,000 Poultry Birds To Be Culled At Punjab's Mohali Amid Bird Flu Scare

The National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal, a nodal body for testing cases of bird flu, on Thursday confirmed that poultry birds (chicken) in 16 districts of Maharashtra have died due to Avian Influenza.

Bird flu has been found in poultry birds of Parbahni, Latur, Nanded, Pune, Solapur, Yavatmal, Ahmednagar, Beed, Raigad, Thane, Gondia, Ahmednagar, Hingoli, Satara, Nagpur and Gadhchiroli.

The laboratory informed the state animal husbandry department that the poultry birds died owing to H5N1 virus — a highly pathogenic avian influenza that causes severe respiratory diseases in birds – in all the 16 districts. A sample of a dead duck from Wardha has also tested positive for bird flu but with H5N8 strain.