India News | Around 500 Poultry Birds Found Dead in HP Amid Bird Flu Scare

Shimla, Jan 6 (PTI) Amid a bird flu scare, around 500 dead poultry birds were found dumped by the side of a national highway in Himachal Pradesh's Solan district on Wednesday, state animal husbandry department officials said.

Samples have been taken for testing for avian influenza and the carcasses have been buried as per bird flu protocol, they said.

It is not known who dumped the carcasses near Chakki Mor, the officials said.

Earlier in the day, officials had said that 120 samples of live poultry birds from around the Pong wetland in Kangra district were sent for testing.

The poultry samples were sent following the death of over 3,000 migratory water birds in and around the wetland after December 28 apparently due to an outbreak of avian influenza among the birds, the officials said

So far, no unusual death among the poultry has occurred here but if the samples test positive, all poultry birds in backyard farms within one kilometre of the lake's periphery will have to be culled and commercial farms in the area would be disinfected, they added.

Kangra Additional District Magistrate Rohit Rathour, meanwhile, on Wednesday directed officials to identify at least one site in each sub-division of the district for the safe burial of dead birds.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)