Husbandry department says no bird flu in Maharashtra

PUNE: The animal husbandry department on Thursday stated that no bird flu case has been found in Maharashtra and people should consume chicken or eggs without fear.
The department said in a statement that it has been conducting bird flu surveys every year. In the 2020-21 survey, the department stated that at it had tested thousands of faeces, saliva and blood samples from birds in poultry farms as well as from the wild and no avian influenza case was reported.
The department has urged farm owners or others to report any unnatural deaths among birds to its officials.
A bird flu outbreak in parts of the country has been reported among wild geese in Himachal Pradesh, ducks in two districts of Kerala and crows in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The Kerala government has ordered culling of ducks and hens located within a kilometre of the affected areas in Kottayam and Alappuzha.
The National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases has confirmed that the deaths of crows in Jhalawar (Rajasthan) was due to the avian influenza or bird flu.