AFD - India

[sharon sanders]

Dead Birds Raise Flu Fears In West Bengal



http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html



# 2191




And from Crof over at Crofsblog, we get this story from West Bengal, where hundreds of dead chickens were found dumped by the side of a road.


No samples were taken for testing, as the police just ordered the villagers to bury the evidence.


Cooch Behar is located in the northern part of West Bengal, and was the site of culling during India's massive bird flu outbreak earlier this year.

Flu fear after dead birds surface
OUR CORRESPONDENT

The dead chickens beside NH31. (Main Uddin Chisti)

Cooch Behar, July 29: More than 300 dead chickens in a highly decomposed state were found lying beside NH31 this morning, triggering a bird flu scare in the area.


The administration is still in the dark about how such a large number of dead broiler chickens were thrown beside the highway, about 10km from here. Three dogs died after eating the birds, sources in the administration said.


Earlier this year, birds had been culled in Cooch Behar district, when chickens in a poultry in Dinhata?s Gitaldaha were detected with the bird flu virus.


Today, the local people set up a roadblock in the area, about 50km from Gitaldaha, from 7am to 10.30am to protest against the stink that had been emanating from the place.


The block officer of the animal resources development department, Swapan Das, said: ?We are not yet sure where from the dead birds came. Collecting samples from them will be futile because they have all rotted.?

(Continue . . .)
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posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 9:11 AM

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: AFD - India - West Bengal

Re: AFD - India - West Bengal

India Bans Some Imports To Prevent Bird Flu


# 2324




Avian flu outbreaks, whether it be in poultry or in people, are primarily cool and cold weather events. The history has been that the number of incidents begin to rise in the Fall, and and peak over the Winter and early Spring.


Summers, as you can see by the chart below, are usually very quiet.






Given the coolest summer in the northern hemisphere in nearly a decade, and the fact that Fall is now officially here, there is a pretty good chance we will soon start seeing more avian flu activity over the next couple of months.


India - who along with Bangladesh faced major outbreaks in their poultry last Winter- is taking steps to try to prevent a repeat performance.


It is a widely held belief among Indian authorities that last year's devastating bird flu outbreak arrived via unregulated cross-border poultry trade with Bangladesh.


In an attempt to clamp down on such activities, new rules are going in place immediately.

India Bans Imports of Livestock, Products to Check Bird Flu

By Thomas Kutty Abraham
Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- India today banned imports of some livestock and their products from nations affected by the avian flu to prevent a fresh outbreak of the deadly virus, the commerce ministry said.


Purchases of domestic and wild birds other than chicken, unprocessed meat and meat products from avian species from all countries are banned with immediate effect, the ministry said in a notice on its Web site.


India also halted imports of live chicken, captive birds, turkey, ducks, eggs and live pigs from countries that have reported avian flu. The curbs will be in force until further orders, the ministry said.


Outbreaks of lethal avian flu have spread from birds to humans in 15 countries, mostly in Asia, and are ``not expected to diminish significantly in the short term,'' according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web site.


The H5N1 flu strain is known to have infected 385 people in 15 nations since 2003, according to the World health Organization. India killed millions of fowl in the past three years following outbreak of the avian flu.
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How effective in controlling cross-border trade in poultry this directive will be remains to be seen. And whether that will keep India safe from another outbreak is unknowable.


India may not require a reintroduction of the virus from an outside source to see new outbreaks this fall.


We don't understand fully how the virus spends its summers. It may be quietly waiting for cooler weather in asymptomatic birds, or other hosts, that are already in the country.


We just know from experience that once the virus gets a foothold in a nation - even if it is `eradicated' - it tends to come back.