16,000 ducks culled in Kottayam amid bird flu scare

Kottayam (Kerala) [India], December 17 : Amid the bird flu scare in the Kottayam district, the local administration authorities began mass culling 16,000 ducks.
As of Thursday, over 16,000 ducks have been culled in the three panchayats - Kallara, Vechoor and Aymanam - of the district in the past two days.
The total count of birds will be released after today's culling, said Collector PK Jayasree.
The collector said, "In order to contain the spread of bird flu in the district, the local administration has decided to cull the ducks. These three panchayats are the worst-affected region. Because these panchayats are low-lying areas, the water table is high in these regions. So we have to burn the corpse of the ducks will be burned instead of burial."
In January this year, over 10,500 birds were culled in Kottayam district to contain the spread of bird flu.