Over 16,000 chicken have been killed in West Bengal's bird flu-affected Malda district where culling operation would end on Friday, a senior district officer said.
District Magistrate Sreedhar Ghosh told PTI that 16,963 poultry have been culled till last night out of the target of
25,000 in English Bazar block of the district.
On Friday around 27 culling teams comprising 216 personnel have fanned out in 24 villages under Narhatta and Kotwali gram panchayat of English Bazar block to complete the culling operation, the DM said.
From Saturday mopping up operations would start in the affected villages, he informed.
Meanwhile, a two-member team of the National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD) comprising Ramesh Agarwal and Jagbir Singh has reached Malda district, Ghosh said.
West Bengal Minister of Animal Resources Development Anisur Rehman had said on Thursday that the situation in Malda district was under control and there was no report of fresh outbreak of the disease.
Barring notified areas where culling operations were on, there was no ban on transport of poultry and poultry products outside.
There was also no case of human infection, the minister had said.