HYDERABAD, Feb 13: DCO Hyderabad Aftab Ahmed Khatri has said that Hyderabad is free from avian influenza (bird flue) and no positive case of this virus has been reported from the testing of blood samples of chickens taken from all registered poultry farms in the district till date.

He said while presiding over a meeting regarding adopting preventive measure to avoid avian influenza in the district, at his camp office here on Tuesday.

He said under the instructions from district nazim during the month of January this year, 125 poultry farms have been inspected from where 429 samples were collected and sent to National Reference Laboratory for Poultry Diseases in Islamabad for analysis but the result in all cases was as negative.

The monitoring committee would check health of the workers of poultry farms, he said.—Bureau