100 chickens dead at Pune farm

District officials are keenly awaiting results of bird samples that have been sent to check for presence of bird flu, reports Satyajit Joshi.

District officials are keenly awaiting results of bird samples that have been sent to check for presence of bird flu.

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With the flu scare back and more than 100 chicken deaths reported from Indori village off the old Pune-Mumbai road, they are keeping their fingers crossed.

Rajendra Chavan, chief executive officer of Pune Zilla Parishad, told Hindustan Times that he had sent a team of experts to the village where unusual mortality was reported.

District health officer Vivek Bharde also confirmed that his team had collected the samples from Indori and sent them to the Disease Infection Section (DIS) in Pune. He also said the samples would also be sent to the Bhopal-based High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory. “We are taking precautionary measures because 100 birds dying here is rather unusual,” said Bharde.

Since most of Mumbai’s chicken supply comes from the Pune-Nashik belt, the city will expectedly be awaiting the test results with some concern.

According to sources in the zilla parishad, as many as 120 birds were found dead at a poultry farm owned by Pandurang Dhore. The private poultry farm has more than 50,000 birds. The poultry owner contacted the government officials when he noticed unexpected bird deaths. Sources said that tehsildar Sampat Khilari has served notice to the poultry owner not to sell his birds.