Imphal, July 18: Widepread panic over bird flu following the “unusual death” of more than 300 chickens at a poultry farm in Thangmeiband last week has prompted the veterinary department in Manipur to step up surveillance in Imphal East and Imphal West districts.

Officials of the department, under the ministry of agriculture, however, said there was no cause for panic.

“There were 144 chickens at the farm in Imphal West. An unknown disease killed 132 of them between July 7 and 10. We have collected blood samples of the chickens and sent those to High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal,” the director of the department, Th. Dorendro, said.

The joint commissioner of the department, A.B. Negi, rushed to Imphal to supervise surveillance. “There is no reason to panic,” he said after assessing the situation.

“Had it been bird flu, none of the birds would have survived. Death of so many chickens is, however, quite unusual. But nothing can be said until we get the blood reports.”

In keeping with the guidelines of the department, the owner of the poultry farm has buried the dead chickens. The 12 chickens were culled and buried. All equipment of the farm had been destroyed.

Officials of the department have fanned out to poultry farms located within a 5km radius of Imphal to collect blood samples of chickens.

“Our teams have collected more than 200 blood samples from various poultry farms and the samples have been sent to Bhopal for laboratory test today. None of the samples collected earlier from Manipur tested positive,” Negi said.

Official sources said consumption of chicken had not been affected by the report of death of chickens.

Manipur has already sounded an alert following spread of bird flu in neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar earlier this year. Import of poultry products from neighbouring countries to Manipur has been banned.