Four days after several hundred birds were found dead in two districts of Jammu amid the scare of bird flu, the administration is yet to find the reason behind their death.
On Thursday, hundreds of crows were found dead in Jammu’s Udhampur and in the Panj Peer area of Rajouri district. “The samples of the dead birds have been sent for testing to National Disease Diagnostic Lab Jalandhar,” said Vivek Sharma, Director Animal Husbandry, Jammu.
She added that the results of the sample will come shortly. So far, there is no report of bird flu cases anywhere in Jammu, said Sharma, and “there is no need to panic.”
Recently, several wild birds were found dead in parts of the country. The bird flu has been confirmed in seven states, including Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Gujarat.
However, Sharma said, it is not necessary that the birds died of the flu only. “It is possible that they might have died due to the cold,” she said. “So, there is no huge loss so far.”
Although the precautions are being taken by the Animal Husbandry across Jammu and Kashmir, however, the mysterious death of birds in Jammu has increased the scare among the people in the regions.
The government has banned the import of poultry across J-K till 14 January, after cases of bird flu started emerging from neighboring states of India and mass deaths of birds were recorded in the two districts of Jammu.
“We are being precautious. Department surveillance is there. Sampling has been increased already and farmers are being made aware,” said Sharma.
