Over 33,000 poultry birds culled in the wake of avian influenza outbreak near Bangalore

The avian influenza outbreak forced to cull thousands of chickens, ducks and emus.

Confirming the development, the state government said that 206 chickens and 17 ducks had died at the institute last weekend were being affected by the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.

The outbreak prompted the animal husbandry department to announce the culling of over 33,000 birds on the CPDO premises and its 1-km radius. 52 chicken sheds in the area were also sanitized to prevent any spread of the flu.

Animal husbandry department principal secretary Aravind Jannu, said, “About 80 samples were collected from villages around CPDO and sent for tests to Bhopal’s High-Security Animal Disease Laboratory on Saturday. No further unnatural deaths of birds have been reported from this zone.”

Action has also been initiated to sanitize turkey, duck, emu and chicken units, he added.

In the previous week, over 3000 turkeys had died of avian influenza in the institute.