Bird flu: Culling process in Jalgaon almost over

Four persons have been kept under observation at hospitals in Chopda, Napi and Jalgaon with suspected symptoms of bird flu.

The process of culling thousands of chicken in four villages of Jalgaon district declared infected by avian influenza is almost over, according to Maharashtra state health authorities.

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Culling a small number of backyard birds which were hidden by household breeders would be completed today, state health directorate chief Dr PP Doke said in Mumbai.

Four persons have been kept under observation at hospitals in Chopda (two), Napi (one) and Jalgaon (one) with suspected symptoms of bird flu, he said.

He also said that the tests conducted so far on them have been negative, but as a precautionary measure "we will keep them under observation for few more days."

The outbreak in backyard poultry farms here was the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu, but no human has been infected so far.

Door to door monitoring of 70,000 people was done in two rounds.

"We will continue checking the same population for flu-like symptoms for 10 days after the last bird is culled," the health official said.