A bird flu outbreak has been confirmed in Maharashtra after test results showed that 800 chickens died of the flu in the Parbhani district.
Maharashtra's National Laboratory has confirmed that 800 chickens in Parbhani's Murumba village died due to bird flu. "Three days ago, 800 chickens in Murumba village died due to bird flu. District administration had sent blood samples of dead chickens to National Laboratory. Reports confirm that the chickens died of bird flu," Deepak Mughlikar, District Collector, Parbhani told news agency ANI.
Maharashtra has become the eighth state where the bird flu outbreak has been confirmed. The other seven states are Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Test results are still awaited for samples from Delhi.
In order to assess the situation arising out of the bird flu outbreak, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday will chair a meeting to review the situation in the state.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying on Sunday said that the central teams formed for monitoring the spread of bird flu are visiting the affected sites in seven states across the country.
The department has issued advisories to the affected States so as to avoid further spread of disease. So far, the disease has been confirmed in Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh.
Test reports of the samples sent to the designated laboratory from Delhi, Maharashtra are still awaited. Further, no samples have been confirmed positive in wild birds from Balod district, Chhattisgarh which were tested earlier.
Control and containment have been completed in both the affected districts of Kerala and Post Operational Surveillance Programme guidelines have been issued to the State of Kerala.
(Inputs from ANI and PTI)
