The West Bengal administration is readying to cull lakhs of chickens over the next three days following resurfacing of bird flu in the state.
KOLKATA: The West Bengal administration is readying to cull lakhs of chickens over the next three days following resurfacing of bird flu in the state that has reportedly led to around 10,000 chickens dying over the past few days.
Health officials are however still testing samples to determine whether the latest outbreak of avian influenza is of the H5N1 strain. In a single district in Birbhum, thousands of chicken have been reported to have died from bird flu in Margram village.
Officials from Centre’s animal husbandry department have landed in Birhbum, who along with state government health officials have fanned out across the district in protective suits, quarantining villagers in affected villages and handing out masks. Villagers are being instructed to stop all buying and selling of chicken.
The state government has not yet officially declared the outbreak of bird flu as it is awaiting final test reports of samples from the Animal Husbandry Laboratory in Bhopal, but the district administration has been put on high alert and logistics for culling lakhs of birds are being put in place.
A two member team of National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD) are already in Birbhum to collect samples and prepare a preliminary report.
Menawhile the Union health secretary Naresh Dayal said in Delhi that the ministry has already sent large doses of the preventive Tamiflu drug to the state.
“Culling will take place in villages as well as towns where many people have poultry in their backyards. We have already taken all precautionary measures in Birbhum, like restricting movement of people along the highways and halting all trade in poultry products in the region,” said a district official.
State health officials said that the latest outbreak could have spread from Bangladesh which is still reeling under avian influenza.
They fear that if the H5N1 strain is confirmed by the Animal Husbandry Laboratory, there is a distinct possibility that the virus may have mutated or combined with other contagious viruses which could pose the threat of a pandemic.
The first case of avian influenza was reported in India in July last year, ever since the country was declared to be free of bird flu in August 2006.
d_ajay@dnaindia.net
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