Hyderabad: Authorities in Telangana on Friday completed the grim task of culling about 1.6 lakh poultry birds from the infected zone in Thorrur village, the epicentre of bird flu outbreak.
"We have completed the culling operations," Director of state Animal Husbandry Department, Dr D Venkateswarlu told PTI here.
The department officials said all the 1,59,953 poultry birds in one km radius of the village in Ranga Reddy district, have been been culled, while as many as 2,30,928 eggs were destroyed.
Officials have now shifted their focus to surveillance zone (within the ten km radius) with teams fanning out to conduct checks on poultry birds in terms of "clinical manifestation" and "collecting blood samples in prescribed intervals".
Poultry population in the surveillance zone in 18 villages is estimated to be 12.52 lakh, officials said.
The bird flu (H5N1 virus) outbreak was declared on Tuesday after five of about ten samples sent to the Bhopal-based high-security Animal Disease Laboratory confirmed the infection.
Department officials have initiated studies to identify the source of infection.
