The veterinary officials on Tuesday began the culling of poultry in the wake of an avian flu outbreak in 17 villages along the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura.

“We have ordered culling of all poultry birds in and around the villages hit by bird flu. The Rapid Action Teams have already fanned out in the area,” State Minister for Animal Resource Development, Aghore Debbarma said.
Hundreds of chickens died at Moloya, Mohanpur and other nearby villages in Kamalpur sub-division of the state’s Dhalai district since early last week. The local vets collected blood-samples of the dead chickens and sent them to High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal.

The lab-tests in Bhopal found strains of the deadly H5N1 viruses in the Tripura blood-samples.
The director of the State Department of Animal Resource Development A Roy Barman said that the virus might have spread from Bangladesh.