Maize and soy, part of chicken feed, see price dip due to bird flu

THE NATIONAL Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal, a nodal body for testing bird flu cases, on Friday confirmed the cause of poultry birds’ (chicken) death in Nanded, Pune, Solapur, Yavatmal, Ahmednagar, Beed and Raigad districts to be bird flu or avian influenza.

The number of districts in Maharashtra with confirmed bird flu in poultry birds has risen to nine.

The central laboratory has confirmed to 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 nine districts.

Also, dead poultry samples from three more villages in Latur district and two more villages in Parbhani districts tested positive (H5N1) for avian influenza on Friday.