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Bird flu hits ninth poultry farm in Pakistan
The H5N1 strain of avian influenza has struck
the ninth poultry farm in Pakistan as authorities struggled to contain the
spread of the deadly virus at poorly maintained facilities, officials
said.
The authorities culled 16,000 birds Sunday at the poultry farm in Pindi
Bhattian district in the Punjab province, about 220 km south of the
capital.
Commissioner of livestock and animal husbandry, Muhammad
Afzal, said the chickens were killed after tests confirmed the presence of the
disease at the farm.
Earlier, the deadly virus infected eight farms
April 17-24, all of them on the outskirts of Islamabad.
More than
40,000 chickens have been culled in less than two weeks with about half a
million eggs destroyed.
Pakistan first suspected the H5N1 strain in
two farms of the North-Western Frontier Province (NWFP) on Feb 27, confirmed
later by the world reference laboratory for avian influenza at Weybridge,
England.
Editor WorldPoultry
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