Thursday, February 23 2006 12:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: A day after the completion of culling of birds, the Government would today (Feb 23,2006) begin burning of feathers and removal of all faecal material from the affected poultries in the three km radius area of the bird flu-hit Navapur.

"Today we will burn the feathers, remove all the faecal material, plastic sheeting from the poultries in Navapur in the affected three km radius area," the Animal Husbandry Commissiner Dr Vijay Kumar, who is stationed in Navapur, told sources.

"We will also be uncovering the burial done by the farmers prior to government machinery began its work and disinfect the area in a scientific manner and all these operations will be completed in the next two days," he said.

Kumar said that till last night, about 2.51 lakh birds were culled, 5 lakh eggs and 50 metric tonnes of bird feed were destroyed.

However, precautionary measures and preventive steps taken by the government machinery will continue, Kumar added.