January 17, 2006

Bird flu ruled out in deaths of India's gulls

More than 500 seagulls have died in the past four days in a lake in a western Indian town, but veterinary experts have ruled out bird flu, an official said Monday.

The deaths of the slender-billed gulls occurred in the Lakhota lake in the town of Jamnagar, where an estimated 30,000 migratory birds visit each year, said District Collector T. Natarajan, the local administrator.

"We have various species of birds which visit this pond, but only this species was affected," he said. "We are surveying the area and have sent the carcasses for lab tests."

However, Natarajan said, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed at least 79 people in Asia and Turkey since 2003, was not responsible.

"Our veterinary doctors have ruled out bird flu," he said. "The symptoms are different."

India has so far not experienced any known bird flu cases.

Natarajan said the veterinarians' preliminary conclusion was that the seagulls' deaths were caused by food contamination related to local residents feeding them a salted snack.

The slender-billed gull is a small seagull that breeds around the Mediterranean and in parts of the Indian Ocean, on islands and coastal lagoons. It migrates in the winters to north Africa and India.