March 15, 2006

Four chickens test positive for H5 bird flu in western India

Four chickens have tested positive for the H5 strain of bird flu in western India, authorities said Tuesday, but it was unclear whether they had the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease.

Officials are planning to slaughter 75,000 chickens in four villages where the outbreak was first spotted in mid-February, said B. Bandopadhyay, the federal commissioner for animal husbandry. The tests just came back from a federal laboratory in the central city of Bhopal, revealing the H5 strain.

Of 6,600 birds tested from the area, dotted with backyard poultry farms, four came back positive, he said.