Bird flu panic in Siliguri, 5,000 chickens dead

SILIGURI: A bird flu scare has gripped this town and its adjoining areas after some 5,000 poultry birds died in a private farm here during the past four days.

The owner of the Raj Aziz Poultry Farm farm, which has over 20,000 birds and chicks, has fled, police said on Tuesday.

The matter came to light when people complained to the police station at Matigara near here about the stench from the farm, prompting Block Development Officer Sanat Mondal to rush there. Mondal found the carcasses of nearly 2,000 poultry birds.

The staff deserted the farm in panic and only a chowkidar was found there, police said.

Alarmed at the large-scale death of birds, the health department rushed a team of experts to the farm to assess the situation.

Officials said the local administration was taking steps to detect the cause of the deaths. The dead birds were immediately buried on the orders of Darjeeling's District Magistrate Rajesh Pandey.

The farm at Patharghata on the outskirts of this town has the capacity to hold 20,000 birds and used to export full-grown chickens to neighbouring Bangladesh, people claimed.

Mondal said the farm's owner used to bring chicks from Malda through Bangladesh.

Pandey said the administration had taken the matter seriously and steps were underway to address the situation, adding there was no cause for panic.

The poultry farm is located beside Himul, a dairy cooperative. The farm was sealed and health workers were keeping a vigil on the health of its employees.

Deputy Director Bidyutbaran Roy of the district animal husbandry department said samples of the dead birds had been sent to a laboratory in Kolkata for tests.

The bird flu scare affected sales of chicken in local markets.

However, the West Bengal government said initial sample tests confirmed that the birds had died either due to 'Ranikhet' or 'Gamboro' attacks.

Samples had been sent to high security animal disease diagnosis laboratory at Bhopal for detailed investigation and "We expect the reports to reach in four to five days," state Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rehman said.

Initial investigations suggested that it was either 'Ranikhet' or 'Gumboro' (infectious disease) disease that caused the large-scale deaths at the poultry.

While the immunity of the birds were reduced during 'Gumboro', drowsy symptoms were manifest when they were affected by the 'Ranikhet' disease, he said.

On the steps taken by the government, he said the border districts had been asked to ensure that there was no smuggling of bird chics or chicken from Bangladesh into West Bengal.