Bird flu — that has already hit nearly 12 States across the country including neighbouring Himachal Pradesh and Haryana — has perched in Punjab also with the State reporting three cases of the avian influenza in the past 24 hours.

The State recorded its first case on Tuesday when a goose, found dead a week ago at Siswan dam reservoir in Mohali district, tested positive for the H5N1 strain.

On Wednesday, samples from two poultry farms of Dera Bassi’s Behra village tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu at the Bhopal laboratory. Besides, a sample of a dead crow, taken in Mohali, has also tested positive.

Notably, the H5N1 strain primarily infects birds causing a highly infectious, severe respiratory disease. But, it can also be transmitted to humans. As per reports, the human cases of avian influenza occur occasionally with 60 percent mortality rate.

“We have been sending 50 samples of the bird droppings everyday for testing from the state’s different poultry farms since the outbreak of bird flu. The report of samples taken from two poultry farms at Dera Bassi in Mohali was received this morning and tested positive,” a senior government official told The Pioneer.

The samples from Dera Bassi’s Alpha Poultry farm — having 55,000 livestock, and Royal Poultry farm — with 60,000 livestock — have been tested positive for the influenza.

The officials maintained that culling would be undertaken in the two poultry farms.

Mohali District Administration, on January 15, had sent a suspected case of bird flu from the area to a Northern Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (NRDDL) in Jalandhar. It was then sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal, for further investigation.

Earlier, the goose was found dead near the Siswan Dam reservoir in Mohali and its samples were sent to the Northern Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (NRDDL) in Jalandhar for testing on January 8.

The samples were then sent to the Bhopal-based Institute of High Security Animal Diseases testing after the NRDDL found it to be a suspected case of bird flu.

The official said that a team of the Animal Husbandry Department had also visited the reservoir area.