As fears of bird flu in the country continue to loom, a new death report of around 900 hens at a poultry farm in Maharashtra's Parbhani district has brought more concern to health officials.

According to Parbhani district collector Deepak Mulgikar, the hens died in two consecutive days and their samples have been sent for investigation to ascertain the exact cause of their deaths.

"900 hens have died in two consecutive days in Murumba village in the Marathwada region. We have taken the samples of the dead birds for investigation," Mulgikar told PTI.

Mulgikar also stated that the poultry farm were the deaths were reported is run by a Self Help Group (SHG).

"This poultry farm has some 8,000 birds. 900 birds have died over two days. No death of birds was reported in the last 24 hours," he said.

Prima facie, the death of hens could be related to nutrition, the collector said, adding that the test results are awaited.

So far, Maharashtra has not reported any cases of bird flu or avian influenza.

On January 8, the centre said that bird flu has been confirmed so far in six states- Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat.