Four crows found dead in Chhattisgarh village; samples sent for test

Cause of their deaths was not immediately known and their samples have been sent to the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal

Amid bird flu outbreak in some states, four crows were found dead in Chhattisgarh's Balod district, officials said on Friday.

Samples of three of them were sent for laboratory testing to ascertain the cause of death, they said.

The district administration has alerted people associated with the backyard and commercial poultry to report immediately to the nearest veterinary centre if they witness unexplained death in birds, the officials said.

The death of four crows was reported from Pondi village, located around 13 km away from Balod town, in the last two days, Collector Janmejay Mahobe said.

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The cause of their deaths was not immediately known and their samples have been sent to the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal, for testing to check if they died due to bird flu, he said.

Another official of the district said, on Wednesday, a crow was found dead in the village following which locals immediately burnt it.

The next day, when three more crows were found unconscious, they informed the local authorities, he said, adding the birds later died.

A team from the animal husbandry department was rushed to the village which seized the carcasses and sent their samples for testing, he said.

The veterinary department has been asked to monitor any mass death of birds in the district, he added.

The Chhattisgarh government sounded a bird flu alert after confirmed cases of avian influenza were found in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and some other states, including Kerala.

So far no case of bird flu has come to light in the state. The animal husbandry department has issued extensive guidelines to district collectors, superintendents of police (SPs) and district veterinary officers in this direction, a public relations department official in Raipur said.

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Officials have been instructed to keep a tab on transportation of poultry birds from other states to Chhattisgarh and carry out inspection of government-run and private poultry farms, he said.

They have been asked to make people associated with the poultry business aware about bird-flu and its prevention, he added.

As a precautionary measure, samples of poultry birds from government-run farms in seven districts were earlier sent for avian influenza testing, but their report came negative, the official said.