India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th - 10th 2008

[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Fresh bird flu cases reported in India
Posted: 09 March 2008 2158 hrs
Indian state says bird flu under controlIndia steps up culling, calls for calm as bird flu spreads

KOLKATA : Two villages in an eastern Indian state that appeared to have brought a widespread outbreak of bird flu under control last month have reported fresh cases of the disease, officials said Sunday.

The new cases were confirmed a month after a massive cull that slaughtered almost 3.8 million chickens and led West Bengal to lift a ban on the sale and transport of poultry across the state.

"Laboratory tests confirmed bird flu on Friday night in two villages of Murshidabad district," Subir Bhadra, a senior official in the district bordering Bangladesh, which is also battling avian flu, told AFP.

Samples were sent for testing after almost 1,000 chickens died there in the past week, the official said.

The district was one of 13 battling the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu at the peak of the outbreak early last month, when more than half the state was reporting bird flu cases.

"We are very concerned over the fresh outbreak," said state animal resources minister Anisur Rahaman.

"Health workers have been asked to cull all poultry in the district in a day or two."

The West Bengal outbreak, which began in January, is India's third and worst bout of bird flu.

No cases of human infection have been reported so far in India. - AFP/ms

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/333861/1/.html

 

[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Not West Bengal, Bathinda is near Pakistan

3,000 birds die in Bathinda



?Samples have been collected from the poultry farm and sent to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal. We don?t think it?s the case of avian influenza because the virus affects humans as well whereas the family of the poultry farm owner was unaffected by the disease,? Dr Darshan Singh said.
View attachment 2369

Hopes and dreams.

 

[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03090802/H5N1_WB_Again.html

 

[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Birds? Death at Bathinda Farm
Samples fail bird flu test
Puneet Pal Singh Gill
Tribune News Service ​

Bathinda, March 9
Twentyone special teams have been constituted by the Animal Husbandry Department to check further spread of the unidentified disease that has killed nearly 3,000 poultry birds in a farm near here. Top officers said the department had been put on high alert. However, the department has ruled out the possibility of avian influenza virus behind the birds? death.
Meanwhile, state animal husbandry minister Gulzar Singh Ranike said: ?All samples taken from the farm have failed the bird flu test, but still we do not want to take any chances. Until we get the final report from the laboratories at Jalandhar and Bhopal, we would be on high alert. Our department is capable enough to handle any such situation.?
In the past one week, these birds died due to an unidentified disease in a poultry farm in Gehri Bhagi village. The department has started inspection of all poultry farms within a radius of 3 km of the farm hit by the disease.
Talking to The Tribune today, Dr Baljit Singh Sidhu, director, animal husbandry, Punjab, said: ?To check the spread of the virus to other areas, we have directed the poultry farm owner not to sell any of the dead birds. We have also asked him not to let move any person or vehicle from that farm to any other poultry farm. We have deputed an official from our department at the farm. All dead birds would be buried under the guidance of the official?.
?Our doctors have collected samples from the farm and sent them to Regional Diagnostic Lab, Jalandhar, as well as to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal. We would get all results in maximum two days? time,? Sidhu added. Dr Darshan Singh, deputy director, animal husbandry, said: ?To check all poultry farms in and around Bathinda for any viral infection, special teams, comprising two doctors, two pharmacists and one or two class IV employees each, have been constituted. In case of any emergency, our department is fully equipped with all kinds of vaccinations and medicines. Besides, we also have ample reserve staff to deal with the situation.?

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080310/punjab1.htm

 

[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Bengal looks for answers as bird flu spreads</ARTTITLE>
10 Mar 2008, 0213 hrs IST

,

TNN

SMS NEWS to 58888 for latest updates

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left>MURSHIDABAD/KOLKATA: With the recurrence of the virus in Murshidabad, the administration is now a picture of indifference. District officials confirmed on Sunday the outbreak in 27 villages of Budhra panchayat and another 14 villages and eight municipality wards at Raghunathganj-II block.

Asked if people should continue to eat chicken and eggs, the minister, who has been busy participating in chicken festivals after the first outbreak, said: "Oh yes. The ban should be restricted to the affected areas... There is no way you can wipe out the H5N1 virus," he added. Villagers in the affected areas pointed out that thousands of chicken have fallen prey to the deadly virus in the last three weeks. No arrangement for treatment or culling was in place, they said.

A central animal husbandry team member, who had visited Murshidabad in January, told TOI from Delhi, that the outbreak proves that the culling operation was defective. "No chicken or duck ? full-grown or otherwise ? should have been alive there." Officials feared that the flu was spreading through ducks, which don't give away symptoms easily.

The culling target at Murshidabad is 50,000 chicken and ducks. "Chicken are dying at Khojardanga, Hyderpur and Elahiganj. Some of these areas had not been affected during the outbreak in January. We are taking precautionary measures," said additional district magistrate Debajyoti Bhattacharya.

Health officials in Kolkata, too refused to wake up to the crisis. "It is not that serious yet. We are keeping an eye," said a health department official.

In Murshidabad, arrangements were being made in a hurry to get the culling operation rolling. While 25 culling teams will be sent to Budhra, 15 will work at Raghunathganj. Ten of these teams have been summoned from neighbouring districts.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2850594,prtpage-1.cms

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[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03090803/H5N1_Murshidabad_Spread.html

 

[Treyfish]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

H5N1 Spread in Murshidabad India

Recombinomics Commentary 22:22
March 9, 2008

District officials confirmed on Sunday the outbreak in 27 villages of Budhra panchayat and another 14 villages and eight municipality wards at Raghunathganj-II block.

Villagers in the affected areas pointed out that thousands of chicken have fallen prey to the deadly virus in the last three weeks.

The culling target at Murshidabad is 50,000 chicken and ducks. "Chicken are dying at Khojardanga, Hyderpur and Elahiganj.

The above comments confirm that the lack of reported H5N1 in West Bengal was due to a lack of testing. The reports of widespread H5N1 in neighboring Bangladesh raised serious transparency issues. The above comments indicate that birds have been dying for the past three weeks..

India has had serious H5N1 transparency issues for some time. They have yet to report H5N1 in any wild bird, resident or migratory, even though large numbers of crow deaths have been associated with multiple H5N1 outbreaks, and migratory birds have died with bird flu symptoms, including pneumonia.

The lack of testing or reporting will not control H5N1. Similarly, border checks will not prevent the spread of H5N1 by wild birds, which have likely moved H5N1 in regions in India beyond the reported cases in West Bengal.

:tiphat: http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03090803/H5N1_Murshidabad_Spread.html

 

[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03090804/H5N1_WB_Multiple.html

 

[Treyfish]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

State?s negligence blamed for virus comeback
Pranesh Sarkar
KOLKATA, March 9: Utter negligence and callousness of the state government, especially in the post culling operation period, helped the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus to catch the state on the wrong foot once again.
According to the information sent by the Centre, fresh bird flu cases have been found in Raghunathganj-II and Jiaganj blocks in Murshidabad. It can be recalled that in the first phase, Raghunathganj-II block was one of the affected blocks of the districts and the state had claimed that culling operation was carried out properly in all the affected blocks.
Experts said that the state government had taken post culling operation activities very lightly and this attitude has helped the virus to re-emerge in the state. According to the guidelines of the Centre, proper follow up action is needed after culling operation gets over in the bird flu affected areas, which include mopping up operation and disinfection activities to leave no chance for the virus to re-emerge. Apart from claiming that proper mopping up and disinfection process was undertaken in the bird flu affected blocks, the state government imposed a ban on all kind of poultry activities and movement of poultry products in all the 48 bird flu affected blocks and five municipalities for three months. But the order could not be implemented properly.
The ARD minister, Mr Anisur Rahman had admitted that poultry birds were being sold in the affected blocks despite the ban. He had also announced the backyard poultry owners who were doing the trading would not be paid compensation as they were flouting the ban. But this also failed to stop the rampant selling of chickens in these areas.
Now experts feel that as the virus has re-emerged in Murshidabad, it is exposed that either culling operation was not carried out properly or no proper follow up action was undertaken. The Centre has also expressed dissatisfaction over the state?s activities in the post culling operation period. :tiphat: http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=194373

 

[Treyfish]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

H5N1 Spread to Multiple Districts in West Bengal

Recombinomics Commentary 23:30
March 9, 2008

Bird deaths were reported from Burdwan, Birbhum and Nadia today, barely 24 hours after fresh cases of bird flu were confirmed in two blocks of Murshidabad.

Nearly 6,000 chickens have died in four villages of Bhatar block in Burdwan since March 1. Over 2,000 poultry birds have perished in Dubrajpur, Birbhum, and Nadia?s Ranaghat.

Poultry owners in Burd-wan accused officials of keep-ing them in the dark about what actually happened to their chickens. ?Our chickens are dying almost everyday but no help is coming,? said Joydeb Ghosh of Bamuniya village, who has lost 250 chickens over the past few days.

As many as 1,000 chickens died in Swapan Nohar?s farm in Ratanpur today. ?They became drowsy and drooped before dying,? he said.

The above comments describe likely spread of H5N1 I multiple districts in West Bengal. The above locations are close to H5N1 outbreaks in Bangladesh, which are being reported daily (see satelite maps here here here) in addition to the confirmed outbreaks in Murshidabad, where poultry has been dying for the past three weeks.

The dramatic spread of H5N1 in Bangladesh, coupled with earlier widespread outbreaks in West Bengal, strongly suggests that the excessive poultry deaths described above are linked to H5N1.
:tiphat:
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03090804/H5N1_WB_Multiple.html

 

[Treyfish]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Bird flu back in Bengal
Kolkata, March 10, 2008
First Published: 01:28 IST(10/3/2008)
Last Updated: 01:30 IST(10/3/2008)

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<!-- VIN: Start of actual news body -->Fresh cases of bird flu have been reported again in Bengal, hardly a couple of weeks after the government completed culling of birds in 14 districts in the state.
The deadly disease had hit Margram village in Birbhum first on January 14 and then spread to 13 other districts.
Deaths of chickens were also reported from Dubrajpur area in Birbhum during the past few days. On Saturday, bird flu was reported in two villages Nayamukundapur and Bothra in Raghunathganj and Jiyaganj blocks respectively in Murshidabad district.
About 900 chickens died in the two villages showing symptoms of bird flu in the past 10 days. Several samples of the chicken carcasses were sent to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal for confirmation of bird flu. The samples were tested positive.
The state animal resource development (ARD) department minister Anisur Rahman said, ?Fresh bird flu cases were reported in two new villages in two blocks in Murshidabad. Fresh culling operation will start within five kms range of the two affected villages from Monday. There is no need to spread panic. More than 50 teams will be engaged for culling operation in the area.?
About 1500 chickens died in three villages Metela, Jhaptara and Goondara in the Birbhum?s Dubrajpur police during past five days apreading panic among the villagers. District ARD department said that several samples of carcasses would be sent to the Bhopal laboratory.
Metela is the worst affected village where almost 900 chickens have died.
The state government has so far culled around 40 lakh of poultry birds and ducks in the 14 districts since January 14.:tiphat: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Story...608f382a336&&Headline=Bird+flu+back+in+Bengal

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Re: India - Bird Flu in POULTRY/ANIMALS Feb 5th +

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03090802/H5N1_WB_Again.html

Commentary http://www.recombinomics.com/feed.xml http://www.newsnow.co.uk/nn/Recombinomics

H5N1 Confirmed in West Bengal Again

Recombinomics Commentary 21:21
March 9, 2008

"Laboratory tests confirmed bird flu on Friday night in two villages of Murshidabad district," Subir Bhadra, a senior official in the district bordering Bangladesh, which is also battling avian flu

The above comments describe the confirmation of H5N1 in West Bangal, India. H5N1 in eastern India is not a surprise. After the extensive culling program, India reports indicated H5N1 was no longer present, but Bangladesh reported recurring infections leading to spread to new districts and an increase in culling activity that was 10 fold higher in the last month than the prior the rate for the previous 12 months.

Both countries reported dead wild birds near H5N1 positive poultry. Bangladesh confirmed H5N1 in the wild birds, indicating limiting H5N1 to regions in the country, and regions across the border would be difficult.

Additional reports of H5N1 in India are expected.


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