Four crow deaths have been reported from two places in Chhattisgarh’s Balod district, officials said on Friday two days after the Centre issued advisories asking states to keep a close vigil to detect any unusual bird death to contain the spread of avian influenza, or bird flu. The Centre on Wednesday said the outbreak has been reported from at least four states.
The officials said villagers burnt one of the dead crows while the rest were sent for examination to Pune. “…a crow was found dead on Wednesday in a paddy field in Pondi village…four crows…were found in a pond. However, we have no confirmation of bird flu till now. Our officials rushed to spot and sent the samples of dead crows for further examination,” said Balod collector Janmajay Mahobe.
Agriculture production commissioner M Geetha said they were testing and collecting samples from the seven government poultry farms of Chhattisgarh to check the outbreak.
Thousands of birds have died in Kerala (mostly poultry), Himachal Pradesh (migratory birds), and Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (crows) since the beginning of the outbreak in December-end.
