Over 150 crows found dead in Jammu region triggering bird flu scare

Over 150 crows were found dead in three districts of Jammu region triggering a bird flu scare and samples have been sent for testing to a wildlife lab in Punjab, officials said on Friday.

The bird deaths have been reported from Udhampur, Kathua and Rajouri districts since Thursday, they said.

Teams of wildlife and animal husbandry departments visited the spot, collected samples and burnt the carcasses, they said.

The samples have been sent to the wildlife laboratory in Punjab's Jalandhar for testing, they said.

The Centre on Friday said bird flu has been confirmed so far in Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat, and asked these six states to contain the disease as per the action plan.

As a precautionary measure, the administration has imposed a ban on import of live birds and unprocessed poultry meat for any purpose into the Union Territory till January 14.