Carcasses of 12 crows found at Muzaffarpur village

Carcasses of about 12 crows were found in an orchard in Muzaffarpur district on Sunday morning, triggering fear of suspected bird flu among the locals.

District Animal Husbandry Officer,Dr Manoj Kumar, said prima facie it did not appear to be a case of bird flu.

The crows were found dead in a mango orchard at Chandanpatti village under Sakra block.

An Animal Husbandry Department team, led by Dr Manoj Kumar, reached the mango orchard after the villagers informed the district administration about the death of the crows.

An officer of the team examined the dead birds and said that prima facie, no symptoms of bird flu have been found in the dead crows.

Samples of the dead crows would be sent to a laboratory for an in-depth analysis, he said.

Carcasses of eight crows had been found in College of Arts and Crafts at Patna following which the institute was closed till January 5.

Around 400 chickens were found dead at a poultry farm at a village in Bikram block of Patna district in the past 48 hours.

Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, popularly known as Patna zoo, has been closed since December 25 (2018) following death of six peafowls due to H5N1 virus which was confirmed by experts of the Regional Diseases Diagnotic Laboratory (RDDL) in Kolkata and the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) in Bhopal, zoo officials said.

Strains of avian influenza was detected from the viscera of dead birds in six villages of Asarganj block of Munger district on December 21.