Bird flu scare in Maharashtra: Samples in Thane, Palghar test positive for avian influenza

After the fatal onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic, bird flu has been detected in several districts of Maharashtra, intensifying the fears of the virus spreading further inside the state. After Thane, the samples from Palghar have tested positive for avian influenza.

The samples of several birds were sent to a lab to be tested for bird flu after a significant amount of poultry was found dead in a few districts. The tests results had then confirmed that the birds were detected with the H5N1 virus, Palghar’s district veterinary officer Dr Prashant Kamble said.

The total number of birds who had died on the farm was not specified but Dr Kamble said that the situation is under control and there is no need to panic, as reported by news agency PTI.

Before the detection of the virus in the Vasai-Varar region of the Palghar district, bird flu cases were also detected in Thane district after around 100 birds died at a poultry farm in Vehloli village in Shahapur tehsil.

The tests of the birds in the Thane area had confirmed that they died due to H5N1 avian influenza, the authorities confirmed. After the testing of the samples, the Thane authorities issued a notification for the culling of birds in the poultry farms within a one-km radius of the affected farm. As of now, more than 25,000 poultry birds have been culled in Shahapur.

Though the bird flu samples have been detected in multiple districts in Maharashtra, the authorities are urging citizens not to panic as the situation is currently under control.

This comes after the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly subsided in Maharashtra, with the state accounting for less than two thousand daily cases, as per the recent update. Maharashtra became one of the worst-hit states during the peak of the pandemic.