Transport of poultry items has been stopped in and from affected areas, officials said (Representational)
Two thousands birds will be culled today in two districts of Maharashtra after samples of dead hens from the state's Parbhani and Beed districts, both in the Marathwada region, have tested positive for bird flu, officials said.
These samples were taken from villages of the Parbhani and Beed districts.
"These spots have been declared as a prohibitory area and the culling process has begun there," officials told news agency PTI.
Transportation of poultry products has been stopped in these areas, they added.
Culling is the mass slaughter of domestic poultry birds, such as chickens and ducks, done to contain the spread of bird flu. During the culling process, all domestic birds in an infected area, where cases of bird flu have been reported, are slaughtered and their remains are buried.
"Earlier, samples of hens found dead in the Kupta and Lokhandi Sawargaon villages of the districts were sent for testing. Their results confirming bird flu were obtained on Friday night," officials told.
"In the Kupta village, culling will take place today, and around 468 birds will be culled," Collector Deepak Muglikar said.
In Lokhandi Sawargaon village, about 1,600 birds are expected to be culled, said Dr Ravi Surewad of the Animal Husbandry department.
"We have formed two teams to cull the birds in the Lokhandi Sawargaon village. As the birds to be culled are not from poultries, it will take time to carry out the process. A 2-metre pit is ready. Calcium Carbonate has been spread on the bed of this pit. Cervical dislocation of hens is done by our teams and then they are placed in this pit," he said.
In Maharashtra, 3,949 birds have been found dead since January 8, officials said on Friday.
Earlier, more than 3,400 poultry birds were culled at another village in Parbhani district after bird flu was confirmed to be the reason for the death of hundreds of hens there.
In Kendrewadi and Sukni villages of Latur district, also in Marathwada region, over 11,000 birds were culled earlier to stop the spread of bird flu infection.
Cases of the avian influenza have been reported from Mumbai, Thane, Parbhani, Latur, Beed and Dapoli (Ratnagiri).