India (incl. West Bengal) - Poultry (December 2008 -)

[HenryN]

Re: HONG KONG: One Human case of Avian Influenza A/H9N2 infection, confirmed by HK authorities

Bird Flu: Poultry sale banned in Siliguri

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=10&theme=&usrsess=1&id=238983

Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Jan. 4: With the outbreak of bird flu at Matigara, Phansidewa and the Rajganj blocks, the civil administration today put a ban on the sale and consumption of poultry items in Siliguri town.
As per the SDO Siliguri Mr Sharad Kumar Dwivedi, the ban has been imposed for an indefinite period beginning this noon and action would be taken for any violation. ?The ban is effective within a 10-km radius of the Binoy Krishana Pally, Matigara where the bird flu outbreak was confirmed first. This implies that major part of Siliguri town is under the ban,? the SDO said adding that the administration would undertake a publicity drive to make the public aware. According to him, the Siliguri wards 21-24 and 35-43 are not within the ambit of the avian flu as yet but the administration was keeping a cautious eye on these localities.

Siliguri subdivision (Bengali: শিলিগুড়ি মহকুমা) is a subdivision of the Darjeeling district in the state of West Bengal, India. It consists of the Siliguri municipal corporation and four community development blocks: Matigara, Naxalbari, Phansidewa and Kharibari. The four blocks contain 22 gram panchayats and two census towns: Bairatisal and Uttar Bagdogra. The subdivision has its headquarters at Siliguri.

[edit] Matigara block

Matigara block consists of one census town: Bairatisal and rural areas with 5 gram panchayats, viz. Atharakhai, Matigara?I, Patharghata, Champasari and Matigara?I.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-distProfile_1-0>[2]</SUP> This block has two police stations: Siliguri and Matigara.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-distProfile_1-1>[2]</SUP> Headquarters of this block is in Kadamtala.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-BDOaddresses_2-0>[3]</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
Phansidewa block
Phansidewa block consists of rural areas only with 7 gram panchayats, viz. Bidhannagar?I, Chathat-Bansgaon, Ghospukur, Jalas?Nijamtara, Bidhannagar?II, Fansideoa Bansgoan and Hetmuri?Singhijhara.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-distProfile_1-4>[2]</SUP> This block has one police station at Phansidewa.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-distProfile_1-5>[2]</SUP> Headquarters of this block is in Phansidewa.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-BDOaddresses_2-2>[3]</SUP>

[Commonground]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Culling of birds continues in West Bengal



<small>From ANI
</small>
Siluguri (WB) Jan 5: Culling operations are continuing in bird flu affected Pubong village under Takdah block of Darjeeling Sadar sub-division and Matigaraha under Siliguri sub-division. <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = 'pub-9743520551274558'; google_ad_width = 250; google_ad_height = 250; google_ad_format = '250x250_as'; google_ad_type = 'text'; google_color_border = 'FFFFFF'; google_color_bg = 'FFFFFF'; google_color_link = '000000'; google_color_url = '999999'; google_color_text = '000000'; google_ad_channel = '4898485360'; //--></script>
<script style="display: none;" type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<script src="http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/test_domain.js"></script>
<script style="display: none;" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/render_ads.js"></script>
<script>window.google_render_ad();</script>


Talking to reporters, the District Magistrate of Darjeeling, Surendra Gupta, said samples of dead chicken are being sent to Bhopal for tests.

"Culling operation will be completed in the next six days," he added.

The main epicenter of the flu has been fixed at Binay Krishna Pally off Siliguri in the District of Darjeeling.

The latest outbreak of the virus in poultry is the fourth in West Bengal since 2007.

Bird flu first broke out in India in 2006 and millions of chicken and ducks had been culled to contain the virus.

Although it has resurfaced from time to time, there have been no reports of any human infections in India.

Earlier, hundreds of thousands of birds had been culled in Assam and neighboring Meghalaya after bird flu was detected in November last year.

Experts have warned that the H5N1 virus might mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people across the world.

[HenryN]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01050901/H5N1_Siliguri.html

[HenryN]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Culling continues in Siliguri after fresh outbreaks of bird flu

http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/56546

NI Wire

Siliguri

Mon, 05 Jan 2009: After confirmation of the fresh outbreaks of bird flu in Siliguri area of Darjeeling district, the administration has imposed ban in selling and farming of chickens & eggs in Siliguri subdivision and Rajganj block of Jalpaiguri districts.
The ban has been imposed within 10 kilometre range of Pubong villa under Takdah block of Darjeeling sadar sub-division and Matigaraha under Siliguri sub-division of Darjeeling district, West Bengal, informed an official.

The samples of the infected birds had been sent to Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory to detect the presence of deadly H5N1 virus, which (lab) has reported positive.
After receiving the positive reports from Bhopal, the state government has ordered the local administration to begin the rapid culling operation from Sunday.
The operation is still going on and will take few more days to complete, till then government has sealed the border of the restricted areas where poultry ban has been imposed, informed local administration.
Binay Krishna Pally off Siliguri sub division has been fixed the major epicentre of bird flu outbreaks and government is closely watching the situation.
This the fourth time, when bird flu pandemic has hit the West Bengal state since 2007, while Ministry of Health from Centre has alleged the migratory birds for this repeated pandemic of bird flu outbreaks.
According to government website, as much as 455 Animal Health Workers have culled a total of 4,62,670 birds since November 2008 after confirming the fresh round of bird flu in West Bengal, Meghalaya and Assam states.
On the other hand, the neighbourhood states like Sikkim and Assam have reportedly imposed the ban on farming and selling of birds and eggs from the region.

http://www.newstrackindia.com/printnews/56546

[HenryN]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Culling gathers speed in north Bengal

Siliguri (PTI): After a slow start, culling operations were on at a war footing in birdflu-hit Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts of north Bengal as the deadline of 21,000 birds to be culled within three km radius of the affected areas ends on Monday night.
Altogether 4,000 poultry birds were culled till 2 pm today, while the total number of birds killed yesterday was 3,691. Only 126 birds could be culled on Saturday, Siliguri SDO Sharad Dwivedi said. The culling teams also destroyed 1,595 eggs and 119 kg of chicken feed during the day.
Dwivedi said the operation, being supervised by four deputy magistrates, had a target of culling 21,000 birds within three km radius of the affected areas in the two districts by on Monday night. "If the target cannot be achieved by tonight, the operation would continue tomorrow morning. Mopping operation will also start from tomorrow," he said.
The number of culling teams was increased from 22 to 26, each consisting of nine members including two policemen. There was no report of any resistance as compensation was being given on the spot, he said, adding the authorities has banned the sale and consumption of chicken and poultry products with a 10 km radius of the epicentre Benoy Krishna pally at Matigara, near here. Culling was on at Rajgunj block of Jalpaiguri, Matigara block of Siliguri police station in Darjeeling, 34 wards of Siliguri Municipal Corporation and at Pubung under Takda block of Darjeeling sadar.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200901051713.htm

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01..._Siliguri.html

<TABLE style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; WIDTH: 775px; FONT-FAMILY: helvetica,arial,sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(190,5,1)" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="WIDTH: 515px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" colSpan=5><BIG><BIG>Commentary</BIG></BIG>
H5N1 Spread to Siliguri India Raises Pandemic Concerns
Recombinomics Commentary 14:24
January 5, 2009

Matigara I and II, Champasari, Sukna, Atharokhai, Jalas and Patharghata are the gram panchayats where the avian flu has been detected. Besides, 34 wards of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (out of 47) are also affected. Some of these wards are in the Rajganj block. The unaffected wards are from 21-24 and 35-43.

Culling of domesticated fowls in the bird flu hit Matigara and Phansidewa blocks in Siliguri subdivision and the adjacent Rajganj block in Jalpaguri district is progressing in a sluggish rate with mere 388 birds been culled until 5 pm today out of the total 18,000 target. The drive was initiated from 8 pm yesterday.
Culling operations have also begun in Takdah block in the Darjeeling Hills with a target of slaughtering 700 birds. All these four blocks were confirmed of bird flu infection late on Friday but the official notification for culling reached the district administration on Saturday morning.

After unusual mortality of poultry birds was also reported from Dasberia village in Takada block, it was decided that the department would cull all birds in the hill village without waiting for bird flu confirmation reports.?
?If bird flu spreads to the hills rapidly, it would be tough for the department to keep a lid on it as the hills are already boiling over the Gorkhaland agitation. Culling of poultry birds in a large area of the hills would certainly be a problem in a situation like this,? the official added.

The above comments from local media reports describe widespread H5N1 in and around the city of Siliguri (see zoomed map) which has portions in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of West Bengal, India. 34 of 47 wards in the city are affected, raising concerns of exposure of the more than 500,000 inhabitants. In addition to outbreaks in the city and its suburbs, there are outbreaks as far south as the Phansidewa block, which borders Bangladesh, as well as the north in Darjeeling Hills, about 30 km from the city of Darjeeling.

Culling is going slowly and more ?surveys? of inhabitants in the cull zones is anticipated. The reliability of these surveys is highly questionable. In Assam there were hundreds of residents within the 0-3 km cull zone who had URI symptoms, but none were said to have contact with dead poultry, so there has been no reported testing. Similarly, surveys of residents in the 0-3 km zone of the Malda outbreak at Englishbazaar identified over 40 such cases, while over 800 were identified in hospitals, yet none were said to have had exposure to dead poultry, so once again there was no test results.

The widespread outbreaks in Siliguri will put an even higher number of residents within the 0-3 km zone of outbreaks and similar survey results are expected.

The absence of reports on testing remains a cause for concern. Even if there is no relationship between dead poultry and bird flu symptoms, some patients should fall into both groups, but the number of such cases remains at zero. The failure to find a single case that has exposure to dead poultry as well as symptoms remains highly suspect. Many confirmed H5N1 cases in other countries have no history of direct contact with dead poultry. Frequently, poultry deaths in the area are reported, or the victim lives near a poultry slaughterhouse, but the direct linkage to dead poultry is lacking.

Testing of patients with bird flu symptoms remains unclear. Last season test results from children in Birbhum who had bird flu symptoms and who had eaten dead poultry was not reported. H5N1 was confirmed in one child in Bangladesh, but the H5N1 was discovered long after the child was discharged, raising surveillance concerns for Bangladesh also. The child also had no reported contact with dead poultry.

Mild cases of H5N1 infections have been reported previously in Egypt and Vietnam, and more recently in Cambodia, raising additional concerns that such cases are not being tested in Bangladesh because the patients are not being tested.

The apparent lack of testing of symptomatic residents within the 0-3 km cull zone is a growing concern.


</TD></TR><TR><TD style="WIDTH: 4px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="WIDTH: 2px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="WIDTH: 4px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="WIDTH: 10px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); WIDTH: 170px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); WIDTH: 30px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); WIDTH: 40px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); WIDTH: 65px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); WIDTH: 85px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); WIDTH: 120px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); WIDTH: 125px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD><TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); WIDTH: 120px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[HenryN]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=heading style="HEIGHT: 20px" vAlign=top bgColor=#ffeeca height=20>Sikkim Government launched drive of disinfecting the incoming vehicles and passengers
</TD></TR><TR><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 4px; PADDING-LEFT: 4px; FONT-SIZE: 12px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 4px; WIDTH: 100%; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; PADDING-TOP: 4px; FONT-FAMILY: verdana; HEIGHT: 75px; TEXT-ALIGN: justify" vAlign=top> Jan 5
After imposing a ban on the entry of poultry and poultry products from outside the State in the wake of reports about outbreak of bird flu in the Malda district of West Bengal., the Sikkim Government on Monday launched once again its drive of disinfecting the incoming vehicles and passengers at the border check posts of Rangpho, Melli and Naya-Bazar. The fresh move has been initiated in the light of reports of the spread of bird-flu in some areas of the neighbouring Darjeeling hills. A State Animal Husbandry Department official told our Gangtok Correspondent on Monday that under the drive, disinfectants are being sprayed on aii the incoming vehicles. He told that Sikkim bound passengers are being requested to get down from their vehicles and pass through disinfectant sprayed mats before entering the State.

http://www.newsonair.com/news.asp?cat=state&id=ST3164

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[HenryN]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Culling continues in bird flu-hit Darjeeling district
January 5th, 2009 - 8:11 pm ICT by IANS - Send to a friend:
Siliguri (West Bengal), Jan 5 (IANS) Nearly 50 percent of the poultry in the bird-flu hit areas of West Bengal?s Darjeeling district had been culled till Monday evening, a senior official said.?We?ve already culled 50 percent (about 9,000) of the total targeted poultry in the affected parts of the district. I hope if everything goes well, we will be able to start our mopping up operation in the next two days,? Siliguri Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Sharat Dwivedi said.
Following a bird flu outbreak, the district administration in Darjeeling ordered culling of 18,000 poultry at Pubang in Takhdra of Darjeeling subdivision and Matigara in Siliguri subdivision.
Earlier, the authorities had ordered the culling of nearly 60,000 poultry but later this figure was brought down to 18,000 after gauging the extent of the avian infection.
Dwivedi said the state Animal Resource Development (ARD) department officials had already begun mopping up operation in Darjeeling hills from Monday.
He said the authorities had not faced any resistance so far from the locals in the Siliguri municipal area and Darjeeling hills.
In Darjeeling subdivision, nine culling teams started operations Sunday.
Though the sale and consumption of poultry products has been banned, it was found that chicken was being sold openly in the affected areas of Darjeeling district.
?We carried out several raids at Matigara, Bagdogra and Siliguri municipal area and stopped poultry business there. We?ll continue to conduct these raids during the next few days,? Dwivedi said.
He said there had been no fresh report of death of any poultry bird in the district.
Alarmed at the death of 80 poultry birds at Pubang in Takhdra of Darjeeling subdivision and 67 poultry birds at Matigara in Siliguri subdivision within a week, the district administration sent the samples to the High Security Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Bhopal. One of the samples tested positive for avian flu.
The development came 18 days after bird flu struck Malda district in the state.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/culling-continues-in-bird-flu-hit-darjeeling-district_100138596.html

[Treyfish]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Hit the mountain chicken campaign from today

Jan 04, 11:32 pm

Darjeeling: Puvung gram panchayat in the campaign will start Monday to beat the chicken. Magistrate of Darjeeling Surendra Gupta said the information given to the Sunday. He said a few days ago Puvung gram panchayat in the area were seen Berdflu virus which meet the information security of the people in terms of the said administration has decided. He said that in the area Puvung gram panchayat in the area of 3 kilometers to the team and set up campaign will be to kill a chicken. Even a few months ago in various areas of the mountain Berdflu because the virus had come to see the mountains in the area at that time thousands of chickens were killed. http://74.125.93.104/translate_c?hl=...02rSBzxF8L3H5w

[HenryN]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Bird Flu: Culling to be over soon
Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Jan. 5: The ongoing culling operation in Siliguri and its adjoining areas which started on Saturday is likely to be over in the next two days, said the Darjeeling district magistrate Mr Surendra Gupta today.
?The district animal resources development department duly assisted by the district administration and the local police has already slaughtered more than 10,000 birds by this evening and the target being 18, 000, we might just complete the operation by tomorrow or by latest day after tomorrow,? he said.
The additional district magistrate, Jalpaiguri Mr N G Hira also said that culling would be completed by tomorrow in the avian flu affected Rajganj block of the district.
Satisfied with the anti-bird flu operation, the Darjeeling DM said that around 7,000 birds had been culled by this evening. ?These culling figures mark progress in comparison with those of yesterday which was around 3,500. And if this continues the culling operation is expected to be over by Wednesday,? he said. Asked whether the administration had encountered any resistance from the poultry owners in course of the slaughter operation Mr Gupta, said that the teams faced some resistance by a handful of traders in the Matigara block. ?We, however, succeeded in convincing most of them saying that the operation was undertaken to keep the dreaded disease at bay,? he said.
"A few traders have expressed reservation over not being provided with any official papers in support of the culling operation. But we have told them that the operation is being conducted as per the order duly issued by the district administration. We are, however, not in a position to provide the documents to the poultry owners,? he said.
Mr Gupta further said that the mopping would immediately follow the culling exercise to eliminate the birds left out in course of the culling operation. ?The whole process would be complete, hopefully, within seven to 10 days,? he said.
Speaking on the matter the SDO, Siliguri Mr Sharad Dievedi said that to speed up the operation four more teams had been added to the previous 20 teams. ?Now 24 well equipped teams with the required expertise are conducting the operation round the clock to wipe out the living sources of the flu,? he said.

Alarm bell rings in Sikkim
The veterinary services in Sikkim have appealed to the public against bringing in chicken or poultry from outside the state. This is in view of the Bird Flu outbreak in neighbouring Darjeeling district. The VS has also fixed the price of local chicken at Rs 90 a kg. Chicken is being sold at Rs 130 to 140 per kg in the state currently.

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=10&theme=&usrsess=1&id=239090

[HenryN]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

H5N1 spreads to more Indian districts

Lisa Schnirring Staff Writer

Jan 5, 2009 (CIDRAP News) ? Animal health officials in India's West Bengal state recently reported new H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in two more districts, according to media reports.
Officials from the affected districts said the virus was found in two villages in Darjeeling and adjacent sites in Jalpaiguri, according to a Jan 3 report from Reuters. The outbreaks involved chickens, the Times of India reported yesterday. The two districts are neighbors in the northern part of West Bengal state.
Surendra Gupta, an official with Darjeeling district, said 30 culling teams were slated to start destroying birds yesterday, and Bandana Yadav, an official from Jalpaiguri, said 10 teams from the district also set out yesterday to cull birds within the outbreak radius.
In late November the virus cropped up in India again after a 5-month lull, striking birds in Assam state, according to previous reports. In mid December, neighboring West Bengal state started reporting fresh outbreaks. An area of Bangladesh that borders both states has also reported recent H5N1 outbreaks.
Elsewhere, veterinary officials in Vietnam recently confirmed in a statement released to the Vietnam Agriculture newspaper an H5N1 outbreak in Thai Nguyen province in the northern part of the country, according to a Dec 29 report from Xinhua, China's state news service.
The outbreak struck 100 45-day-old poultry and was the province's second outbreak in 2008, the report said.
In other developments, livestock officials in South Korea reported that they detected the low-pathogenic H5N2 virus at a duck farm in North Chungchong province, in the central part of the country, according to a Jan 2 report from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
No bird illnesses or deaths were reported, but officials found the virus during ongoing surveillance of all duck farms that began in September, the report said. Authorities culled 6,837 birds to control the spread of the virus.
Investigators haven't determined the source of the virus. South Korea's last H5N2 outbreak occurred in October 2008 when the virus was detected at a duck farm in the city of Yesan, in South Chungchong province.
See also:
Jan 2 OIE report on South Korea's H5N2 outbreak
Dec 1, 2008, CIDRAP News story "India reports new H5N1 outbreak"

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/jan0509birds-jw.html

[HenryN]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Bird flu returns to west Bengal in India

Agence France-Presse Published: Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Health authorities in India on Saturday confirmed a fresh outbreak of deadly bird flu after thousands of chickens died, officials said. The latest infection is the fourth outbreak of the H5N1 virus in the eastern West Bengal state in the past year, they said, adding that thousands of poultry perished in the hilly Darjeeling district. "Several thousands of poultry dropped dead over the week in Darjeeling's Mathigarah village," West Ben-gal Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahaman told reporters in the state capital Calcutta. "Samples of the dead poultry have tested positive," he said, and added that 20,000 infected birds were to be culled. The state authorities have already slaughtered five million poultry to control the virus during 2008 as India battled its worst bird flu outbreak. The virus spread to 14 of the 19 districts in West Bengal, which has a population of more than 80 million. But India has still not reported any human case of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Officials in the northeast state of Assam last month killed 250,000 chickens to control the spread of the deadly infection, which had sparked fears of a human case after many people were reported sick. The World Health Organization says the H5N1 strain has killed nearly 250 people, mostly in Southeast Asia, since 2003.

http://www.nationalpost.com/story-printer.html?id=1146759

[Diane Morin]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="90%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=93 background=images/headhline.gif></TD><TD background=images/headhline.gif> </TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2> </TD></TR><TR align=left><TD>Mopping operation to start today

SILIGURI, Jan. 6: The mopping up operation of Bird Flu affected poultry would begin in Siliguri tomorrow, according to the sub divisional administration sources. About 21,000 chickens and ducks have been slaughtered by this evening. The culling operation started on Saturday as avian flu was detected in some areas of Matigara last Friday.

According to the Siliguri SDO, Mr Sharad Dwivedi, the mopping up would be carried out to eliminate those left out during the culling. ?This operation would be complete in a couple of days,? he said.

?Our initial slaughter target was 18,000 birds, yet the culling figure has surpassed the pre-determined figure by a few thousands. This is because the bird count has increased since the last count about three years back,? he said.

Mr Dwivedi further said that the district administration was satisfied with the successful operation within the shortest possible time. ? The common people and the poultry owners have fully cooperated with us so far in ridding the town of the virus,? he said. n SNS
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=10&id=239199&usrsess=1

[Diane Morin]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

January 2009

Dead crows

The death of 16 crows in two different parts of the city on Tuesday triggered bird flu fears. Deaths were reported from Bagmari and Lake Road areas. Health officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said only three crows have died. Samples have been sent to the Bagmari Veterinary Hospital for examination, civic officials added.

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=22&id=239223&usrsess=1

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Those crows again.!
IF they died of H5N1, I'd expect there must be dead rodents, also, unless the crows are faster and more thorough.

I wonder if they're looking for other dead scavengers, like rodents.

.