PATNA, Feb. 25 -- Around 6,000 poultry birds will be culled in Patna on Wednesday after the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, spread from crows to poultry for the first time this year, officials said on Tuesday.

Patna district magistrate Thiyagarajan SM said the culling would occur in the Chitkohra area, which houses the main poultry unit under the Bihar Animal Sciences University (BASU), after bird flu was confirmed in poultry birds.

"We received an intimation from the animal husbandry department today. Around 6,000 poultry birds will be culled within a 1km radius of the epicentre where poultry deaths have been reported," he said. Officials added that nearly 4,000 poultry birds have died so far this mont...