Over 15,000 chickens culled in Islamabad

Islamabad, Apr 20 (UNI) Pakistan culled over 15,000 chicken on the outskirts of the Capital.

''These 15,000 chickens were culled last night at a poultry farm while another 5,000 at a nearby farm are being slaughtered today,'' Dr Muhammad Afzal, Commissioner Livestock and Animal Husbandry said while talking to UNI here today.

He said while laboratory tests on the samples obtained from the two farms are awaited, it is clear that they will be positive.

At least 3,500 chicken at a small poultry farm near Islamabad had been culled last Sunday after authorities received positive results on the samples they had sent to the National Polutry Avian Influenza Laboratory in the capital.

Dr Afzal said authorities have already quarantined the two new farms and their workers while a vast area around them has been sealed of as a preventive measure.

On February 27 last, Pakistan had announced that bird stock of two NWFP farms of having been affected by avian influenza after it received positive results from the World Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza at Weybridge, England.

UNI XC ARB KN1908