Five chicks were found to be infected with H5N1 avian influenza on regular testing of samples belonging to the farm of a poultry farmer Srinivas Reddy in Thoroor village of Hayatnagar mandal in Ranga Reddy District, about 50 km from Hyderabad.
Culling of 1.5 lakh birds in a kilometre radius is to begin shortly and around 250 veterinary staff who were exposed have been given Tamiflu as a preventive measure although no cases of human infections were identified so far, according to Ranga Reddy district officials.
