Officials from the veterinary office in the district have taken some dead chickens for lab test to find out if the deaths were caused by bird flu. [break]
Some 400 chickens died in the poultry farm of Dinesh Sitaula of Tankisinuwari-4 and 600 others in the farm of Kiran Kafle.
According to owners, the poultry started salivating and had swollen heads. After that the chickens started dying.
Recently, bird flu was detected at Ward No. 10 of Mechinagar Municipality of neighboring Jhapa district.
The dead poultry in Tankisinuwari, that borders Biratnagar city, have been buried in pits near the two farms. Locals in the area are panicked and demanding further clarification from the Department of Health about the mass deaths.
The owners of the farms have claimed that they suffered a loss of about Rs 200,000 due to the poultry deaths. A team of veterinary technicians from Regional Animal Disease Diagnosis Laboratory, Biratnagar have collected the samples of dead chicken for laboratory tests on Friday. Another team of technicians also reached the sites and conducted investigation into the sudden deaths.
Local are further panicked as dogs have been taking out and eating the dead chickens that were loosely buried in nearby pits.
Meanwhile, Sadananda Dev, chief of the regional laboratory at Biratnagar informed that initial investigations showed the chicken samples tested negative to bird-flu virus and they have been sent to Kathmandu for further investigation.
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