India Bird Flu Is Among Deadliest Strains

BOMBAY, India – Lab tests have confirmed that at least some of the chickens that died of bird flu in western India died of the deadly H5N1 strain, a state minister said Saturday – announcing the country’s first case of the disease.

At least 30,000 chickens have died in the town of Navapur in the poultry-farming district of Nandurbar over the past two weeks, Anees Ahmed, the Maharashtra state minister for animal husbandry told the Associated Press.

"It is confirmed the deaths were caused by the H5N1strain," Ahmed said. "We’re destroying birds in a 3-kilometer (1.5-mile) radius."