SARGODHA - A contagious disease broke out in birds and chickens across district as hundreds of them have fallen victim to the disease.
The Livestock Department has divided the district into six sectors to fight the disease while surveillance committees have also been formed. Regional Disease Surveillance Officer Dr Tanveer Ashraf said that it was a viral disease namely Newcastle ND (Ranikhet) according to the test reports of Research Institute of Rawalpindi. He said that the disease was caused by sudden breakdown of temperature in weather making it cold.
He said the fatal disease communicates from wild birds like sparrow, crows and others to domestic and commercial birds such as pigeons, peacocks, fancy birds and chickens but it could not affect human beings.
Dr Tanveer Ashraf said that all control sheds and poultry farms were being vaccinated and livestock officers were visiting poultry sheds. On the other hand, the affected birds are being sold out in the open markets and bazaars. Meanwhile, the prices of chicken meat in local market have decreased from Rs250 to Rs190.