KHAIRPUR, March 22: District Officer Poultry Dr Inayat Ali Otho on Wednesday advised people in villages to immediately kill and bury any chicken showing symptoms similar to those of bird flu. As a precautionary step, he said at a meeting, isolation wards had been set up in all taluka offices and civil hospitals.

A large number of poultry farms out of a total of 350 in the district were in talukas Khairpur and Kingri. He said 45 samples from Kingri, 35 from Khairpur and 37 from taluka Gambat were being sent to the Poultry Production and Research Institute in Karachi on weekly basis.

The meeting formed a committee consisting of EDO health Khairpur and officers from agriculture, livestock, poultry and other departments to supervise vaccination of poultry.