Silchar, Feb. 21: A post-mortem last night has proved that the death of a large number of chicken earlier this week in Cachar district was not due to bird flu.

A panel of specialists of the state veterinary department, which conducted the autopsy at a laboratory here, concluded that the poultry died of bacillary white diarrhoea.

A total of 947 birds died at Charagi bazar village in Cachar’s Kathigorah block, triggering widespread panic over avian influenza. Allaying these fears, Cachar subdivisional veterinary officer B.B. Chakravarty today said such bacterial infections are quite common among chicken and often prove fatal.

The experts have reached a consensus that the unhygienic conditions at one Neyaz Uddin’s Jehanara poultry farm had caused the serial deaths. The owner has been warned to disinfect his farm regularly.

A senior official of the Cachar district administration added that the veterinary department has been asked to implement preventive steps. These include screening of visitors at border checkgates, vaccination of young birds and cleaning up of poultry farms.

Boy injured

A 13-year-old boy was critically injured when a Bangladeshi trespasser fired seven rounds at him from his countrymade gun.

The criminal trespassed into no man’s land along the Indo-Bangladesh border at Mahisashan village in south Assam’s Karimganj district.

Nuruddin, the victim, was rushed to the district civil hospital at Karimganj town for surgery. Nine pellets were extracted from his body.