THANE: As many as 1,300 chicken from Rayata will have to be culled while a similar action for around 250 birds has been planned in the nearby Atali village in Kalyan, barely 35km from Mumbai, after the two stretches were declared containment zones in the wake of the bird flu on Tuesday, said Rajesh Narvekar, the district collector.
The development comes after poultry specimens from the villages that were sent to NIHSAD, Bhopal, tested positive for the flu infection, said officials from the animal husbandry department (AHD). Now, surveillance will be intensified in nearby areas as well.
Vijay Dhumal, deputy commissioner at the Thane AHD, said Rayata village has been declared a containment zone and now they will have to impose restrictions on poultry movement in a 1km radius.
“A chicken sample sent from the poultry here tested positive for bird flu. As per protocol, we will have to cull around 1,000 chicken here and also shut all poultry rearing or selling units in the village for the next 15 days,” said Dhumal.
The second sample which tested positive was sent from Atali village, which comes under the KDMC jurisdiction. The stretch is situated around 9km from Rayate village.
A KDMC official said after 10 chicken from a villager were found dead, they alerted the animal husbandry department that sent samples of the birds for avian flu testing.
Officials said on Tuesday, the health department team alerted them that the Atali birds samples tested positive.