Re: India sounds bird flu alert after chicken deaths; H5N1 confirmed
Re: India sounds bird flu alert after chicken deaths; H5N1 confirmed
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=775 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=reportHeadLine vAlign=top>Two more districts hit by birdflu, culling gains momentum</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top> </TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>PTI </TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top> </TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>
NEW DELHI: Two more districts of West Bengal were on Saturday hit by dreaded birdflu taking the the total number of districts affected by the deadly virus to five even as the Centre expressed dissatisfaction about the steps taken by the state government to cope with the disease.
Samples from one block of Nadia district and two blocks of Burdwan district have tested positive for avian influenza, the Union Animal Husbandry department said.
On Friday, the government had confirmed bird flu in Murshidabad, which was the third district to be afflicted by the disease after Birbhum and Dakshin Dinajpur.
With reports of bird flu spreading, the poultry mortality has reached one lakh even as the culling operations gained momentum.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the government has ordered culling operations in areas where the virus is suspected to have struck even without waiting for confirmation report from laboratory test.
In Kolkata, Minister of State for Health Panabaka Lakshmi said the Centre is not satisfied with the steps being taken by West Bengal government to tackle bird.
"No, we are not satisfied," she said when asked if the Centre was satisfied with the measures being taken by the state government to contain the disease.
The minister, however, did not specify exactly where the state government was lacking in its initiatives but said that as per information available to her, compensation to poultry losers was not properly distributed.
The Union Animal Husbandry Department said in a statement that a total mortality of 96,010 birds has been reported from Birbhum, Dakshin Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, South 24 Parganas, Burdwan and Bankura districts of the state.
The samples of birds from Cooch Behar, South 24 Parganas, Purulia and Hooghly districts have tested negative for bird flu, while results on samples from Bankura are still awaited.
A total of 52 fresh samples of poultry, ducks, pigeon and crows from Murshidabad, Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum and Paschim Medinipur have been sent to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal, for tests, it said.
Sixtyfour teams are carrying out culling operations in Birbhum district and 38 in South Dinajpur district and 16 Rapid Response Teams (RRT) have been deployed in Murshidabad for intensive surveillance.
Till Friday, 85,632 poultry have been culled and 58,966 eggs destroyed.
West Bengal Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rehman, however, said the situation has not worsened and was instead showing signs of "overall improvement".
He said the number of teams engaged in culling operations would be increased to 300 from Sunday.
No human being has been affected so far, he said adding trained volunteers would carry the dead birds to avoid villagers carrying them with bare hands.
In some areas, villagers were dumping dead chickens in ponds increasing the risk of the virus spreading.
Rehman said 60,000 to 70,000 of chickens of the four lakh to be destroyed had been culled.
He said the number of teams engaged in culling operations would be increased to 300 from Sunday from the 85 at present.
Later, at Murshidabad, he said that affected poultry farmers would be paid Rs 30 to Rs 40 for chicken, whether home reared or poultry, depending on the size and Rs 10 for chicks.
He ruled out increasing the compensation and said payment could be collected from panchayat offices in two days.
He said that poor farmers who had lost their birds would not be given compensation but would be given chicks free.
While the minister was visiting the district, residents of Kharguna gram panchayet area stood guard over their poultry and demanded Rs 1000 for each bird to be culled declaring that it was the responsibility of the administration to have taken steps against the bird flu.
The district magistrate said he was inquiring into it.
The district magistrate of Dakshin Dinajpur, the other affected, Swapan Chatterjee said in Balurghat that over 16,000 chicken have died since Thursday.
He said the target of culling chickens has been raised to 40,000 from 26,000 and might taken seven days.
Lakshmi said the Centre was ready to help the state in every way to contain the disease.
"We have already sent gas masks and other things, besides five ventilators for hospitals. We have sent these even without the government asking," she said.
She also said that as per information available to her compensation for affected poultry farmers was not being properly distributed.
Culling operations would begin on Sunday also in two blocks of Purbasthali and five blocks of Mangalkote in Burdwan district where 15,000 domestic chicken and ducks died in the past one week.
Additional District Magistrate (Development) Subir Chattopadhyay said the test reports of samples from the two areas would be received Sunday and the culling of about 26,000 birds was likely to be completed by Monday.
The poultry were not affected, he said adding steps had been taken to stop entry of eggs and chicken from outside to contain the spread of the disease.
No spread of the disease among human beings was reported, district authorities said.
In South Dinajpur, the scare of bird flu spread to Gangarampur, where 1000 chicken died in a private poultry.
Samples from the birds there were sent to the Bhopal laboratory, the district magistrate said.
He said door-to-door culling operations would begin at Balurghat on Sunday and no compensation would be paid to the owners.
So far 33,149 chicken had been culled in the district and 53494 eggs destroyed as well as 1554 kg of bird-feed, he added.
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http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1146231
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=homeoverviewfont align=left>Traditional cock fight during the two days Jonbeel festival of Tiwa community held annually in Jagiroad in Gauhati, on Friday. Tribal Tiwa people come down from Meghalaya hills to participate in Jonbeel festival where they exchange goods by barter system. AP:tiphat: </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
state Animal Resources Minister Anisur Rehman said on Saturday. 
while results on samples from Bankura are still awaited.