Bird flu spreads across India
An outbreak of avian influenza or bird flu is rapidly spreading across India, with at least nine states confirming cases and others awaiting test results as they put containment measures in place, officials and media reports said.
The latest to confirm cases are the capital, New Delhi, and the western state of Maharashtra, Indian media reports said yesterday.
New Delhi has closed the Ghazipur wholesale poultry market, the biggest in the region, after nearly 200 birds, mostly crows, were found dead.
Visitors have been barred from parks with water bodies, lakes and wildlife sanctuaries in the national capital region.
An official in Maharashtra yesterday said at least 800 hens died there in the last two days.
"Their samples were given for testing. And now it is confirmed that the reason is bird flu," Deepak Madhukar Muglikar, a district collector of Parbhani, about 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the state capital Mumbai, told Indian broadcaster, NDTV.
"It has been confirmed in Murumba village. There are about eight poultry farms and 8,000 birds. We have give orders of culling those poultry birds," he said.
On Sunday, authorities in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh shut down a zoo in Kanpur city after the death of four jungle fowls and two parrots.
Test reports received late on Saturday confirmed they were positive for the virus, Kanpur district's chief veterinary officer RP Mishra said.
"We are in the process of culling all birds present in all the enclosures and the zoo has been declared a containment zone. It is unfortunate but we are following the protocol," Mishra said.
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