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Dead migrating birds found in Kharkiv region near Krasnopavlivka village were not killed by bird flu or Newcastle disease, the press service of the Emergencies Ministry has reported, referring to the preliminary tests.

According to the press service, the number of dead birds reached almost one thousand on Monday.

The regional Committee on industrial and environmental safety and emergency situations, a task group of the Main office of the Emergencies Ministry, the Veterinary service, the regional Sanitary and Epidemiological station, the environmental service and the police are operating at the site where the dead birds were found.

The members of the committee set up preliminary measures to isolate the location.

Veterinary medicine experts in Lozovsky region took samples of the dead birds for lab testing, and the Sanitary and Epidemiological station together with the Voda (water) public enterprise took water samples for lab tests. The committee has selected a method of safely disposing of the dead birds.

All the work is being done under the strict safety measures. Rescuers were provided by the Main office of the Emergencies Ministry with special respiratory and skin protective devices (L1 suits, masks). The fixed and mobile police guards are also organized at the location.

Experts of the regional state laboratory for Veterinary Medicine said that preliminary laboratory blood tests did not confirm that the birds had bird flu or Newcastle disease.

It is planned that the final results as to the reasons for death of migratory birds will be obtained on March 24.

The rescuers of the Emergency Ministry are carry out an information campaign among the local population.

As reported earlier by the press service of the Emergencies Ministry, about 500 dead migratory fowl were discovered near the village Krasnopavlivka in Kharkiv region on and near the sides of the Krasnopavlivka reservoir.