Bird Flu fear: Over 4 Lakh poultry birds die in Haryana in last 10 Days; States on alert

Chandigarh, Jan 06: Over four lakh poultry birds have died at 20 farms in Haryana's Panchkula district in the past 10 days, officials said on Tuesday.

A team of experts from Jalandhar-based Regional Disease Diagnosis Laboratory has collected samples of birds at poultry farms, they said.

After a number of states across the country reported the bird flu cases with the death of lakhs of birds, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on Tuesday issued advisory and directed state wildlife departments to take serious note of avian flu cases and report mortality of wildlife to the ministry on priority.

Panchkula's Barwala-Raipur Rani area is one of the largest poultry belts in the country with 70-80 lakh birds in more than 100 farms.

The unusual deaths of the birds have occurred in the last 10 days at 20 poultry farms with epicentre near Garhi Kutaha and the other near Jaloli village in the Barwala area.

In its directive, the wildlife division of the union environment ministry told states that they should take all possible measures and precautions to prevent transmission of diseases, if any, in other animals and human beings.

The ministry also highlighted that a large number of migratory birds visit India during this season and thus states are advised to keep a strict vigil on wintering habitats of such birds, including wetlands, for signs of mortality or disease outbreak.

The development comes as culling of chickens and ducks began on Tuesday in parts of Kerala to contain the H5N8 strain of bird flu, while Jammu and Kashmir sounded an alert and started collecting samples from migratory species after Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh reported cases of the avian influenza.