Eggs temporarily taken off mid-day meal menu in Bihar as bird flu spreads

The Bihar government on March 11, 2025, temporarily removed eggs from the menu of midday meals (MDM) provided to thousands of children in government-run schools as a precautionary step after the confirmation of bird flu in the state’s Patna, Bhagalpur and Jehanabad districts.

The measure was also prompted following an alert issued by the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying to all states, including Bihar, due to increasing cases of bird flu, said an official of the state education department on March 12.

“Eggs will be replaced by seasonal fruits like apples or bananas. The department will inform concerned district officials about when to start including eggs again after the situation becomes normal,” said primary education and MDM director Sahila.

The MDM scheme is implemented in more than 70,000 schools across Bihar. MDMs are served in 70,202 schools according to official data. An average of 10 million children avail meals cooked under the scheme daily.

The state government provides eggs to school students of Class 1 to 8 under the MDM scheme every Friday. Vegetarian students are provided seasonal fruits.

Experts of primary school education said thousands of school children, mostly from poor backgrounds, will be deprived of eggs, a rich source of nutrition, due to bird flu. Eggs were included in the MDM menu to provide protein to school students and for other health benefits.

As fears of bird flu grip the state, the government has initiated several measures. It has appealed the public to not panic.

Last week, authorities ordered the culling of chickens and ducks at vulnerable places, mainly within a 1 kilometre radius of infected zones. More than 3,000 chicken have been culled in Bhagalpur alone in the last few days and hundreds of eggs destroyed.

The government also issued appealed to people through local media to avoid eating chicken and eggs in view of the prevailing situation.

Government-run hospitals have been directed to be on alert, take precautions and treat patients coming with complaints of fever, running nose and breathlessness after conducting their blood tests.

Chickens were found dead on the premises of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) in Patna on February 27, 2025. Their samples were sent for tests to Bhopal-based National Institute of High Security Animal Disease. The test results confirmed the birds had died from bird flu or H5N1, according to health officials.

Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey said the health department is monitoring the situation after confirmation of bird flu in the state.

Sanjay Gandhi Jaivik Udyan, the zoological garden in Patna, is on alert and precautionary measures have been taken to protect birds and animals, like spraying of insecticides near bird cages.

Bird flu has been confirmed in neighbouring Jharkhand as well and the culling of chickens and ducks has been started there to stop its spread.