Nepal to cull over 2 lakh chickens in Koshi Province after major bird flu outbreak

Kathmandu, Apr 19 (PTI) Nepal has decided to cull over 2 lakh chickens in Sunsari and Morang districts following a major bird flu outbreak in Koshi Province.
    Preparations are underway to cull over 1.55 lakh chickens at the farm located at Ramdhuni Municipality of Sunsari, officials said on Sunday. 
    Similarly, a government team is also preparing to cull some 72 thousand chickens at a farm owned by the Purbanchal group located at Budhiganga in Morang district in the same province.
    The livestock service department confirmed bird flu infection in the farms a couple of days ago.
    According to Dr Manoj Kumar Mahato, chief of the veterinary hospital in Sunsari, some seven thousand chickens have already died in Sunsari due to infection. 
    To prevent further spread of infection in other areas, remaining chickens in the farm are to be culled, and a big team of human resources has been mobilised for the purpose, informed Dr Mahato. 
    He said 110 people are deployed for culling and burying the chickens.
    According to Dr Ajay Kumar Shah, chief of the veterinary hospital, Morang, preparations were underway to cull 72 thousand chickens of Budhiganga on Sunday itself.
    About 200 thousand chickens were culled earlier in the month in Sunsari district. The government provides relief of up to 75 per cent of the total cost to compensate for losses due to bird flu to the farmers.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)