Jammu: The Animal Husbandry Department in the Jammu region said that the birds that died last week in Udhampur and Kathua didn’t die of bird flu, however, the reason is still unknown.Several hundred birds were found dead on January 7 in the Jammu division and the samples of the dead birds were sent for testing to National Disease Diagnostic Lab Jalandhar.An official said that the reports of Udhampur and Kathua dead birds were negative.He said that the reason for the death of the birds is not known yet and the investigation is being done on a priority basis.Recently, several wild birds were found dead in different parts of the country. So far, there is no report of bird flu cases anywhere across Jammu and Kashmir. However, several birds and eagles were found dead in some parts of Uri and in a village in Sopore on Monday.He added that the samples have been sent to different labs in Bhopal and Jalandhar for testing.He said that the birds might have died because of the injury or the starvation due to heavy snowfall across Kashmir.”Birds in Kashmir die every year can’t connect every death to bird flu,” he said, adding that such diseases spread like a wildfire.Last week, the government banned the import of poultry in Kashmir till 14 January as precautionary measures after mass deaths of birds were recorded in Jammu districts.
