KATHMANDU: Nepal is battling a surge in bird flu cases, and has slaughtered more than 596,000 poultry and shut its only zoo, agriculture ministry officials said Tuesday. The Himalayan nation has had bird flu in previous years, but the first cases this year were reported on March 18. Since then, government livestock officials have overseen the widespread culling of chickens and other domestic birds, and the destruction of more than a million eggs.

Nepal has culled 600,000 birds as H5N1 sweeps Kathmandu, closing the capital’s only zoo and raising fears it could mutate to infect humans.

KATHMANDU: Nepal is battling a surge in bird flu cases, and has slaughtered more than 596,000 poultry and shut its only zoo, agriculture ministry officials said Tuesday. The…