PUNE: The death of around 75,000 birds in Nandurbar district is not due to bird flu, as declared by the Maharashtra government, according to Anuradha Desai, chairperson of the National Egg Co-ordination Committee and chairperson of Venkateshwara Hatcheries Ltd, country's largest poultry procesing company."It is some mistake. I am surprised and shocked at how the government has declared that it is bird flu on the basis on just one report.
We are not in agreement with it," said Desai.
Desai said there has not been a single case of bird flu at the Poultry Diagniostic and Research Centre, a sister concern of Venkateshwara Hatcheries.Desai said the deaths are more likely due to a seasonal poultry disease called Ranikhed or Newcastle, which usually occurs at the onset of summer every year.