Bird flu scare in Maharashtra: 25,000 chickens to be culled in Thane

Mumbai, Feb 18: Around 25,000 birds falling in a kilometre radius of the affected poultry farm will be killed within the next few days, in the wake of a bird flu scare.

According to ANI, Thane district magistrate and collector Rajesh J Narvekar said the district animal husbandry department has been ordered to take measures to control the infection, adding samples of the dead birds have been sent to Pune-based laboratory for testing.

What is Bird flu

Bird flu, or avian influenza, is a viral infection spread from bird to bird.

It is deadly to most birds. And it is deadly to humans and to other mammals that catch the virus from birds. Since the first human case in 1997, H5N1 has killed nearly 60 per cent of the people who have been infected.

Bird flu effect on humans and how does it spread

People catch bird flu by close contact with birds or bird droppings.

Some people have caught H5N1 from cleaning or plucking infected birds. In China, there have been reports of infection via inhalation of aerosolized materials in live bird markets.

It's also possible that some people were infected after swimming or bathing in water contaminated with the droppings of infected birds. Notably, people don't catch the virus from eating fully cooked chicken or eggs.

Unlike human flu bugs, H5N1 bird flu does not spread easily from person to person. The very few cases of human-to-human transmission have been among people with exceptionally close contact.