Chandigarh, Jan 9 (PTI) A drive to cull over 1.60 lakh poultry birds at five poultry farms commenced in Haryana's Panchkula district on Saturday, officials said.

The move comes after samples of some birds in two poultry farms at Kheri and Ganauli villages in Panchkula tested positive for the H5N8 strain of avian flu on Friday.

"The process (to cull birds) started today by the state's animal husbandry department," Panchkula Deputy Commissioner M K Ahuja said.

He said it will take around two to three days to complete the drive.

The deputy commissioner further informed that a team of National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal would visit Panchkula next week.

On Friday, Haryana Animal Husbandry Minister J P Dalal had said that 1,66,128 birds of five poultry farms would be culled and buried as per the guidelines of the Union government.

The state government had constituted 59 teams for the drive.

The owners of the poultry farms would be given a compensation of Rs 90 per bird.

The state government has already declared the area within 1 km radius of the two poultry farms as an 'infected zone' and the area from 1 km to 10 km as 'surveillance zone'.

Around four lakh birds had died in poultry farms in Panchkula in the past month.

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 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)