Bird Flu in India

Bird flu hits India from The Hindu

NEW DELHI: The dreaded pathogenic H5N1 bird flu has hit the country — about 50,000 birds are suspected to have been infected in the tribal Nandurbar district of Maharashtra. As a precaution, two lakh birds being reared in 16 commercial farms within 3 km radius of the affected area would be culled (killed), the Secretary, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, P.M.A. Hakeem, told The Hindu .

A red alert has been sounded in the adjoining Surat district in Gujarat, which has many commercial farms. India has about 490 million poultry of which 60 per cent is in the commercial sector. The rest is backyard poultry.