11K birds culled in Latur

Aurangabad: Over 11,000 birds have been culled in Kendrewadi and Sukni villages in Latur district of Maharashtra to stop the spread of bird flu infection, a senior official said on Wednesday.

He said report on the sample of birds found dead in Vanjarwadi village, also in Latur district, is awaited. "The administration has culled 11,064 birds in Kendrewadi and Sukni villages in the radius of one-km of the area where samples of birds had tested positive for bird flu. The culling process in these two villages is complete. We will send a report to the state government by tomorrow," Latur collector B P Prithviraj told PTI.

Bird flu has been confirmed in 9 states and 1 Union Territory so far while cases of unusual mortality have been reported in some districts of Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmi.

The decision to ban sale and storage of poultry or processed chicken meat left the owners of meat shops and restaurants in many States worried as they termed the order "needless" and said it would cause a huge loss to their businesses.