Bird flu: Poultry farms, shops to be closed after 45 chickens dead in Palghar

Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported deaths of 381 birds on Sunday amid the avian influenza scare, a state government official said on Monday.

He said 380 of these were poultry birds, including 190 from Nandurbar and 115 from Amravati in Vidarbha.

So far, 7,20,515 poultry birds, including 5,86,668 from Navapur in Nandurbar, have been culled, and 26,44,177 eggs as well as 73,004 kilograms of poultry feed destroyed in infected zones, and carcasses were being buried in lime lined pits to prevent the spread of infection, a state government release informed.

The state government has paid compensation of ₹3.38 crore to affected poultry farmers in the infected zone, it added.

Additionally, the culling operation of the birds, mopping and sanitisation of infected poultry farms were completed in Punjab's SAS Nagar earlier in February, the district Information and Public Relations Office said on Monday.

"After three weeks of extensive curtailment measures, the threat of spread of avian flu in the district has been successfully countered'', informed Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan on Monday.

The Deputy Commissioner also said that the administration has been on high alert ever since the bird flu confirmation was received on January 21. Twenty-five Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) comprising of five members each were deployed for swift action. The culling in the infected farms Alpha, Royal and Evergreen in village Behera commenced on January 22 and by January 29 nearly 84,505 birds from these farms were culled.

"Subsequently, 2,760 eggs and 1,28,850 kg feed was destroyed. This was followed by a period of mopping which lasted for nearly ten days. Thereafter, large scale sanitization measures were initiated, and now the concerned farms have been finally issued the certificates of sanitization and all the aspects of culling operation are complete," he added.

With inputs from ANI