IMPHAL, April 20: ICAR joint director Narendra Prakash told IFP that the first incident of death chicks was found on April 6, following heavy rains accompanied by hail stone.
Around five chicks were first found dead within the poultry unit of ICAR before that there were no such cases, he said.
While the ICAR assumed that it could have been due to the rough weathers, the death of chicks became frequent thereof adding that most of the chicks were two to four weeks old.
Informing that there were altogether 940 chicks at the poultry unit including 560 in unit number one and 380 in unit number 2, the joint directors disclosed that of the total 125 chicks have been transported to KVK Churachandpur.
The chicks were transported to Churachandpur a couple of days after deaths of the chicks.
Following the series of deaths, the ICAR sent the samples of the chicks to Bhopal laboratory of National Institute of High Security Animal for testing and the result came positive yesterday.
Immediately after receiving the information, the remaining 115 chicks at the poultry unit of ICAR were culled, said Narendra Prakash, joint director ICAR.
Subsequently, the information was immediately passed on to the directorate of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry.