By Xinhua
Islamabad : Pakistani authorities have intensified monitoring of over 800 poultry farms in the capital following an outbreak of bird flu in five poultry farms there, an official said Saturday.
The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was detected in three farms May 22 and in two other farms the next day in Chak Shehzad, a suburb of Islamabad, state media reported, quoting Livestock Commissioner R.H Usmani.
Several thousand chickens were killed by the disease or culled later in these farms.
However, the official said there had been no case of human infection by the virus.
The affected poultry have been kept in quarantine to stop further spread of the virus, and livestock officials have started spraying disinfectants in an area of three km from where the bird flu virus was detected as precautionary measures, according to the report.
Besides, the poultry farm owners were asked to adopt measures to check the spread of bird flu, including using gloves and masks while working in the farms.