PATNA, March 18 -- The dairy, fisheries and animal resources department has advised the Bihar Animal Sciences University (BASU) to strengthen biosecurity measures, following an outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza (bird flu) at two of its farms in Patna, resulting in the death of nearly 8,500 poultry birds and the destruction of around 15,000 eggs over the past month, officials said on Tuesday. Dr Deepak Kumar, research officer at the Institute of Animal Health and Production under the department, said BASU has been advised to adopt stringent containment measures. These measures include pruning trees on campus to prevent bird nesting, deploying dedicated labour for each poultry shed, mandating workers to change clothes before and after entering sheds, and maintaining uniform age groups of birds within enclosures to minimise infection risks. The measures follow a meeting BASU vice-chancellor Dr Inderjeet Singh convened a meeting on Monday with scientists from the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal, and departmental experts to formulate a containment and control strategy. Dr Singh said the university will intensify biosecurity by lopping trees around poultry sheds and installing ultrasonic devices to deter birds from nesting on campus. "We will also segregate poultry stock by shifting birds to our units in Jamui and Kishanganj and explore partnerships with private players to house up to 2,000 birds, ensuring continuity of research during outbreaks," he said. Dr Singh added that the current outbreak has severely impacted research activities. "We have lost all our poultry birds, setting back our research by nearly a year," he said. The H5N1 virus led to the death of around 6,000 birds at BASU's Poultry Research Training Centre in Kaushal Nagar, Chitkohra, and another 2,500 at the Livestock Farm Complex near Patna airport. Following confirmation of bird flu on March 12, the Centre issued a notification mandating the culling of all poultry within a 1-km radius of the outbreak site. With no birds remaining at the BASU farm, around 210 poultry birds were culled at the nearby Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) campus on March 14. This marks the second culling operation in the city within weeks. Earlier, on February 25, nearly 5,000 birds were culled at BASU's Poultry Research Training Centre after initial detection of the virus. So far, eight districts in Bihar - Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, Katihar, West Champaran and Banmankhi in Purnia - have reported bird flu cases. Patna remains the only district where the infection has been detected in both poultry and crows. In other districts, the virus has so far been confined to crows, with more than 400 deaths reported. Experts believe migratory birds carry the H5N1 virus, underscoring the need for heightened surveillance and strict biosecurity protocols....