Agartala, April 11 (IANS) Authorities in Tripura Friday completed the culling of about 40,000 poultry in a district bordering Bangladesh where bird flu was confirmed. The mopping up operations would begin Saturday and be completed by Tuesday, said Ashish Roy Burman, director of the Tripura Animal Resource Development Department (ARDD).

The culling was done in Dhalai district bordering Bangladesh.

The mopping up operations in 32 villages of Kamalpur sub-division of the district would include destroying of poultry sheds, cleaning and disinfecting ofaffected areas, and recovery of any hidden poultry birds and poultry products.

Burman said rapid response teams and surveillance groups were collecting blood samples of dead birds after reports of fresh deaths came in from different parts of the state in the past few days. The state government has paid compensation of Rs.2 million to the affected poultry farmers and villagers.