Snowy Owl
Retired in 2010, In Memoriam
Bird flu resurfaces in West Bengal
10 May 2008, 0331 hrs IST,Kounteya Sinha,TNN
NEW DELHI: The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has resurfaced in West Bengal, with the latest area to be infected being a small town, Sukna, in the tea-growing hill district of Darjeeling.
Two samples sent from dead backyard poultry found in a village near the town have tested positive at Bhopal's High Security Animal Disease Laboratory. The virus had caused mortality of over 300 backyard poultry in a couple of days.
The latest outbreak takes the number of infected districts in the state to 15.
WHO called this outbreak in West Bengal "India's worst", especially because only four districts in the state remained safe from the virus that scientists say has the potential to cause the next big influenza pandemic.
Speaking to TOI, Pradeep Kumar, India's animal husbandry secretary, said: "Bangladesh is far off from this village and so are the other infected districts. We are puzzled about how the virus could have entered Darjeeling. One explanation suggests that the village is just a few kilometres from the Siliguri-Darjeeling highway. Poultry being carried on this highway could have harboured the virus and helped it to spread."
Principal secretary (animal husbandry) of West Bengal D K Chakraborty told TOI: "We just don't know how the virus is spreading, neither do international agencies like FAO and WHO. In the latest outbreak, we will cull about 20,000 birds. Restocking of birds took place in some districts even before sanitisation operations were completed. But we took great care in culling birds missed initially. We are sending 4,000 bird samples every month to HSADL."
Over four million birds have been culled since bird flu first entered West Bengal in January. However, no new outbreaks had been reported in the state after April 4. Since the virus resurfaced in Asia in late 2003, at least 241 people have died from bird flu in a dozen countries while birds in over 40 countries got infected.
Sources said that panchayat elections in West Bengal had severely affected the state's bird flu control and containment operations. State officials in districts like Birbhum, Burdwan, Malda and Murshidabad did not want to intimidate villagers by taking away their birds. This, they said, could cost their vote bank during the elections slated to be held on May 11, 14 and 18.
The latest outbreak comes after the UN issued its gravest warning to India since bird flu first broke out in the country in 2006, saying the virus may have got entrenched in the Indo-Gangetic plains of India and Bangladesh.
UN's influenza coordinator Dr David Nabarro said an entrenched virus would mean a longer time to stamp it out, higher risk of re-infections and a greater cost - both financial and human - for the infected country.
Health minister A Ramadoss had written a strongly worded letter to agriculture minister Sharad Pawar over West Bengal's slack containment efforts.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Bird_flu_resurfaces_in_West_Bengal/articleshow/3026529.cms
10 May 2008, 0331 hrs IST,Kounteya Sinha,TNN
NEW DELHI: The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has resurfaced in West Bengal, with the latest area to be infected being a small town, Sukna, in the tea-growing hill district of Darjeeling.
Two samples sent from dead backyard poultry found in a village near the town have tested positive at Bhopal's High Security Animal Disease Laboratory. The virus had caused mortality of over 300 backyard poultry in a couple of days.
The latest outbreak takes the number of infected districts in the state to 15.
WHO called this outbreak in West Bengal "India's worst", especially because only four districts in the state remained safe from the virus that scientists say has the potential to cause the next big influenza pandemic.
Speaking to TOI, Pradeep Kumar, India's animal husbandry secretary, said: "Bangladesh is far off from this village and so are the other infected districts. We are puzzled about how the virus could have entered Darjeeling. One explanation suggests that the village is just a few kilometres from the Siliguri-Darjeeling highway. Poultry being carried on this highway could have harboured the virus and helped it to spread."
Principal secretary (animal husbandry) of West Bengal D K Chakraborty told TOI: "We just don't know how the virus is spreading, neither do international agencies like FAO and WHO. In the latest outbreak, we will cull about 20,000 birds. Restocking of birds took place in some districts even before sanitisation operations were completed. But we took great care in culling birds missed initially. We are sending 4,000 bird samples every month to HSADL."
Over four million birds have been culled since bird flu first entered West Bengal in January. However, no new outbreaks had been reported in the state after April 4. Since the virus resurfaced in Asia in late 2003, at least 241 people have died from bird flu in a dozen countries while birds in over 40 countries got infected.
Sources said that panchayat elections in West Bengal had severely affected the state's bird flu control and containment operations. State officials in districts like Birbhum, Burdwan, Malda and Murshidabad did not want to intimidate villagers by taking away their birds. This, they said, could cost their vote bank during the elections slated to be held on May 11, 14 and 18.
The latest outbreak comes after the UN issued its gravest warning to India since bird flu first broke out in the country in 2006, saying the virus may have got entrenched in the Indo-Gangetic plains of India and Bangladesh.
UN's influenza coordinator Dr David Nabarro said an entrenched virus would mean a longer time to stamp it out, higher risk of re-infections and a greater cost - both financial and human - for the infected country.
Health minister A Ramadoss had written a strongly worded letter to agriculture minister Sharad Pawar over West Bengal's slack containment efforts.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Bird_flu_resurfaces_in_West_Bengal/articleshow/3026529.cms
