First suspected cases of bird flu in Punjab, samples sent to Bhopal facility for confirmation

Punjab on Friday reported its first suspected cases of bird flu with samples from two poultry farms in Mohali testing positive for avian influenza. The samples have now be sent to a Bhopal facility for confirmation.

According to an official, the samples were collected from the poultry farms at Behra village in Mohali's Dera Bassi and were tested at the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Jalandhar.

The samples have now been sent to the Bhopal's National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases for confirmation, the official added.

The Bhopal facility is the final authority for declaring bird flu.

Neighbouring Haryana has already declared bird flu and had announced to cull over 1.60 lakh birds of five poultry farms in Panchkula district.

Earlier, Punjab had sounded an alert and pulled all stops to keep the state safe from the possible effect of an outbreak in its neighbouring states.