Hyderabad: Dr D. Venkateswarlu, director of the Animal Husbandry departmentsaid that as per the recently released updated guidelines from Central government for handling bird flu cases, the culled birds will be buried in pits with layers of lime as disinfectant. The pits will be located far from water sources.

Officials are taking stock of the poultry farms in the surveillance zone and will also collect samples from the 18 villages in this zone and send them for testing of bird flu to the lab in Bhopal. This process will continue for the coming 30 days and in this period no poultry bird or egg from this area will be allowed to be sold.

Samples of backyard poultry will also be sent and 1,015 such birds were identified in the surveillance area.

There had been no bird flu outbreaks in the united Andhra Pradesh and the last bird flu outbreak was reported in January 2015 in Kerala.

With culling of infected birds beginning in the city, experts said it was safe to eat well-cooked chicken.

Dr D Venkateswarlu, director of the animal husbandry department, said, “We are killing all the birds in infected region. There is no need to panic. One can cook the chicken above 70ºC Celsius — this temperature is easily crossed in Indian cooking — and consume it.”

Experts suggested the following precautions:

* Avoid meat products that look pink.

* Avoid chicken cooked in western style, like barbecue and salami

* Prefer eating chicken cooked in Indian style at higher temperatures

* Do not buy chicken from unhygienic places

* Visit doctor if flu symptoms persist for long

* If your pet is sick take it to a veterinarian

Experts said there was no known case of humans contracting flu from chicken. But WHO says 826 humans contracted it in 16 countries, and 440 of them died.