Birds being culled in Bihar amid flu scare

Bihar is witnessing an Avian flu scare with hundreds of birds dropping dead over the last few days in Patna, Munger and some other districts of the state.

The Bird flu panic commenced with the death of peacocks at Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, or Patna zoo, in Patna in the last week of December, following which reports from some other districts also poured in.

Bihar government ordered culling of over 2,000 poultry birds in Munger after Bhopal-based National Institute of High Security Animal Disease confirmed H5N1 virus as the cause behind the death of birds in the village.

The state has collaborated with officials of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare to make efforts for containing the situation. A team from the ministry has suggested measures to prevent the spreading of virus in Munger, while sanitisation work continues at Patna zoo which was shut for visitors following the Bird flu scare on December 25.

According to sources, around 3,000 hens died at Andhra Chowki village in Patna last week, dozens of crows and hens were found dead in an orchard in Patna and Gaya, hundreds of hens have died at a poultry farm in a village in Bikram block in Patna and bird deaths were also reported from Bhagalpur and Nawada districts in the last one week.