India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width="100%">[FONT=Arial, Helvetica,sans-serif]Is Kolkata ready to handle bird flu?</ARTTITLE>
24 Jan 2008, 0257 hrs IST

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left>KOLKATA: After striking terror across nine districts in Bengal, the deadly avian flu virus is almost in Kolkata. It has reached up to Hooghly's Balagarh, which has made the authorities sit up. The danger signals are loud and clear and a red alert has been sounded.

But the question that's worrying Kolkatans is whether the city is prepared to fight an outbreak? Though the government and civic authorities are trying to cope with the situation in the wake of an outbreak, the lack of experience and proper equipment could hit them badly, say health officials.

Though the city has just one poultry farm, which happens to be the largest in the state, neither the health department nor Kolkata Municipal Corporation has ruled out the possibility of an outbreak. Also, it's doubtful whether the animal husbandry department will be able to undertake the culling operation in the city with its limited resources.

Civic health officials admit that there is a lack of coordination between KMC and the animal husbandry department, with the civic bosses monitoring the situation without any guideline from the department.

The vigil hasn't been foolproof yet. Poultry in the vulnerable areas within the city limits like unhygienic Tangra, Topsia, Garden Reach, Anandapur and Mukundapur are yet to be screened. While markets and its adjoining areas are being put under the scanner, thousands of roadside shops have so far escaped scrutiny. Civic bosses are yet to take stock of the government-owned poultry farm at Tollygunge in South Kolkata.

Experts warn that even one infected bird is enough to spread the deadly virus in the city. ''Unless the sellers take precautions themselves, it's virtually impossible to keep the virus out. They will have to maintain cleanliness, be alert about the quality of chicken they are selling and spray disinfectants regularly. Even common liquid soap or phenyl is enough to kill H5NI,'' said Barun Roy, animal diseases expert.

Roy, however, added the city doesn't face an imminent threat because the supply line from the affected areas has been cut-off and leaflets outlining the 'dos' and 'don'ts' are being distributed by KMC, health and the animal husbandry department.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/rssarticleshow/msid-2726278,prtpage-1.cms

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[sharon sanders]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

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Quote:
Originally Posted by christian
Confirmed outbreaks:
Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Burdwan, Malda, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howra and Bankura

Name: west bengal distr.gif Views: 16 Size: 31.6 KB

Unconfirmed outbreaks:
Darjeeling, Cooch Behar, Purulia, Hooghly, Midnapur, Kolkata/Calcutta Metropolis
credits Christian
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[HenryN]

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Bird flu: WB poultry in Jharkhand</ARTTITLE>
24 Jan 2008, 0316 hrs IST

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left>JAMSHEDPUR: Amid reports of the Jharkhand government banning poultry products from bird flu-hit West Bengal, dressed chicken is being smuggled into the state's East Singhbhum district. Sources said unemployed youth involved in the smuggling of chickens start the operation after midnight.

The youth are paid Rs 2-5 per bird.

East Singhbhum DC Nitin Madan Kumar, however, said he had no information about this. ''We will probe the matter and the SP will do the needful to stop entry of poultry from West Bengal.''

An agency report from Patna said the Bihar government on Wednesday ordered culling of chicken in six panchayat areas in Katihar district, bordering Malda district in West Bengal, as a preventive measure.

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Default Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
Committee to monitor bird flu


Staff Reporter







KOCHI: The district administration has constituted a committee to monitor the prevalence of bird flu, if any, in the wake of reports of the disease from some parts of West Bengal.
District Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish on Tuesday constituted a committee comprising the District Medical Officer, Animal Husbandry Officer and Tourism Joint Director to inspect poultry farms and other vulnerable areas. The DMO has been asked to ensure that workers in the farms are not affected.
Mr. Hanish said that in case of mass death of birds anywhere, it must be reported to the nearest Animal Husbandry Office.
It must be ensured that the waste generated from poultry farms was disposed of hygienically. The farms must be frequently disinfected. He directed the officials concerned to keep a watch on places where migratory birds resided.
People were warned of their vulnerability to water-borne diseases such as jaundice, malaria and typhoid. Steps must also be taken to destroy mosquitoes and their breeding grounds. http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/23/stor...2358960300.htm
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Bird flu: Meghalaya sounds alert</ARTTITLE>
24 Jan 2008, 0315 hrs IST

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left>SHILLONG: Meghalaya has sounded an alert with avian flu spreading fast in West Bengal. Officials said an expert team from the Union animal husbandry and health ministry is expected to arrive in Shillong on Thursday to assess the situation and oversee precautionary measures.

Meghalaya chief secretary Ranjan Chatterjee said an alert has been sounded and an awareness campaign is on.

''All veterinary officials, especially those along the Bangla border, have been asked to monitor the situation closely and take preventive steps to arrest any outbreak of the disease,'' he said.

Additional checkgates have been set up along the Indo-Bangla border to prevent smuggling of poultry.

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Commentary

H5N1 Encroaches on Calcutta

Recombinomics Commentary 16:56
January 22, 2008

With contiguous districts - Howrah, North and South 24-Parganas - reporting virus sightings in backyard poultry farms, entry of the deadly H5N1 virus into Kolkata now appears imminent.

As many as 41 home-grown chickens were found dead in Howrah's Nalpur village on Tuesday, sending state health officials into a tizzy.

Animal resource department (ARD) officials who went to the village to collect samples, spotted the birds with saliva dripping and liquid oozing out of their eyes - telltale signs of bird flu.

The toll is likely to go up in coming days with similar reports pouring in from Domjur and Uluberia in Howrah and Haroa in North 24-Parganas, they said.

The above comments suggest H5N1 will be confirmed in Calcutta shortly. Nalpur village is in Sankrail, just across the Hooghly River from Calcutta (see satellite map) and is one of many suburban locations with excessive bird deaths. Calcutta has issued an alert.

In addition to poultry deaths, there have also been reports on dead domestic birds, including crows and owls, as well as dead teals.

The involvement of H5N1 in human cases is still unclear. Media reports of cullers in isolation with pneumonia were denied, but a fatal case (8F) in Nadia appears to be far from resolved, although exhumation of the body is also not clear.

The lack of confirmation of H5N1 in districts adjacent to Calcutta appears to be largely linked to the number of samples tested, which at this time seems to be quite low.

Additional testing of birds representing excessive deaths would be useful.


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Bird flu knocks on city
23 Jan 2008, 0257 hrs IST,TNN KOLKATA: The Centre is rushing veterinary doctors from seven states to West Bengal to tackle the country's "worst" bird flu outbreak, even as the deadly H5N1 virus threatens to hit Kolkata.

Reports of suspected avian flu outbreaks poured in from the districts on Tuesday, most alarmingly from the districts surrounding Kolkata - Howrah (in Nalpur), North 24-Parganas (in Haroa) and South 24-Parganas, where 15,000-20,000 country chickens died in the last few days. Bird deaths have been reported from Kusumpur and Haripur in East Midnapore too.

However, there was some welcome news, too: Blood samples and throat swabs taken from five suspected Murshidabad flu victims have tested negative, said Shiv Lal, National Institute of Communicable Diseases (Delhi) director.

The Centre has urged the state to speed up culling, Union animal resource secretary Pradeep Kumar said in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who called up the Prime Minister on Monday, is in regular touch with Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. "No state is fully equipped to tackle such a situation. We had never faced anything like this," the CM said on Tuesday. Both he and health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra denied any human infection of the H5N1 virus.

Though the CM described the situation as "mostly under control", health officials pressed the panic button when bird deaths were reported from Howrah's Nal-pur village, just 60 km from here. Animal resource department (ARD) officials who had gone on a routine check on Tuesday saw the dead chickens with saliva and fluids oozing out of their eyes and beaks - tell-tale signs of bird flu.

Similar reports are pouring in from other areas of Howrah such as Domjur, Uluberia and Haroa. Seven districts are already in the grip of the disease, Mishra said.

Sensing the magnitude of the outbreak, the Centre is sending 150 veterinarians from Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Orissa, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Punjab. The state is fielding more 'rapid reaction teams' for culling ? from 290 on Monday to over 500 on Tuesday.

In Malda, culling can start only on Thursday, more than four days after the outbreak was confirmed. And in worst-hit Birbhum, the impact area is spreading so fast that culling teams have been slashed from five to three. giving up?

The confusion on the ground can be gauged from the fact that the Centre and the state can't even agree on the culling figures. While the Union animal resource secretary said 250,000 birds had been culled, state animal resources minister Anisur Rahman claimed it was 450,000. Kumar feels it will take six more days to meet the 2 million target. But state home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray felt it could stretch till the month-end. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/C...ow/2722754.cms

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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=articleheader>Flu stain widens, doubts rise on border scan
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleauthor>OUR BUREAU</TD></TR><TR><TD class=story align=left>

Jan. 23: Bird flu was confirmed in Hooghly and Cooch Behar today, raising the number of affected districts to nine and sparking concern about the efficacy of border controls in the state.
The High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal said the poultry samples from Gopalpur village in Balagarh, Hooghly, and Jaridharala village in Dinhata, Cooch Behar, had tested positive for bird flu.
?So far, 34 blocks and four municipal areas in nine districts have been hit by the disease,? animal resource development minister Anisur Rahman said at Writers? Buildings.
An official said in Delhi that either birds were ?still moving from district to district or the virus spread when there was no ban on poultry movement?.
The minister said: ?Roads to Calcutta would be under surveillance to prevent the transportation of chickens and eggs from the affected areas.?
A revised culling target is being worked out.
Animal husbandry officials in Delhi said 414,000 birds had been culled in Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Burdwan, and Bankura by the end of Tuesday.
All-party meetings were held in the flu-hit districts today to raise the level of awareness. Rahman said the number of culling teams at work went up from 476 to 640 today.
?The job is complete in South Dinajpur, where 80,000 birds were culled. It will be over in Burdwan and Bankura tomorrow,? the minister said.
The expanding scale of the epidemic is unlikely to lead to any change in strategy. Culling and a ban on movement of poultry will continue, a senior official told The Telegraph.
Vaccinating poultry against H5N1 is an option that India would not like to exercise now, the official added.
A vaccine has its own complications. For instance, vaccinated chickens may carry low levels of the virus and function as carriers. They may continue to shed the virus in the environment and expose humans to it. ?Long-term human exposure to low levels of the virus shed by vaccinated chickens may lead to mutations in the virus, allowing it to infect humans more efficiently,? the official said. ?Most countries have turned away from vaccination.?
Rahman said officials from the US and Japanese consulates met animal resource secretary Dilip Chakraborty yesterday and sought details on the flu as poultry products from Bengal were exported to the two countries.
The state government sanctioned Rs 5 crore for the flu fight today and asked for Rs 8.25 crore from the Centre. Both have spent Rs 3.5 crore each on culling and compensation.
The minister said he would request Delhi to raise the compensation amount. The damages being paid are in accordance with central norms.
In Balagarh, 80km from Calcutta, culling will begin tomorrow. Around 5,000 birds will be killed there.
Ten vets from Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Assam are expected to reach the affected districts tomorrow, Rahman said.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080124/jsp/bengal/story_8819924.jsp​

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[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

Hogg Market finds few takers even on a holiday
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, Jan. 23: Rows of empty baskets, which not long ago were full of squawking chickens, line Hogg Market?s wholesale poultry and chicken shops. At peak hours on a day the market should be full of Kolkata?s murgi eaters, poultry sellers covered with blankets lay dozing near their empty baskets. Avian flu, or the fear of it, has changed everything for the city?s poultry sellers.
?We spend Rs 400 a day on an average on feeding the chickens and generally looking after them. Compared to that, we have been selling only about Rs 100 worth of chicken a day since the last few days,? said Guddu, a shopkeeper in Hogg Market?s wholesale chicken and poultry market. For every basket of chickens, half-a-dozen other baskets lie depressingly empty here.
Even a week ago, when bird flu was first confirmed in Birbhum district, the price of a kilo of the bird gourmets and health food freaks swear by was selling for Rs 55 in these very stalls. Today the price of the bird has plummeted to Rs 30 to Rs 35 per kilo.
And while the poultry variety have few takers, desi chicken sellers are slightly better off. In Hogg Market, large desi birds sell for Rs 85 a kilo. But prices of these birds have dropped too ~ from Rs 100 last week.
Understandably, some poultry wholesale dealers are on the defensive when questioned about the situation in the city. ?Bird flu affected chickens even 50 years ago. The situation has spiraled out of control because of the entry of large retailers, who are trying to take business away from small shopkeepers,? fumed Md. Chand, a wholesale dealer.
He claimed things were ?not bad? for poultry sellers. ?Yes, there has been an impact, but people are still buying chicken. There has been just a 10 per cent dip in sales. A similar dip in orders from hotels,? claimed Md Chand.
A few yards away, poultry sellers played cards to spend the time, and others simply slept, waiting for bird flu to fly away...

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=23&theme=&usrsess=1&id=187293

 

[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

Posted online: Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 2316 hrs IST
Kolkata, January 23
Bird flu has spread to almost half of West Bengal with Cooch Behar and Hooghly being added on Wednesday to the list of districts affected by the disease, even as the state’s Animal Resources Development (ARD) department requested the police to ensure that poultry and its products from affected areas are not allowed to enter Kolkata. It has been decided to depute ARD department employees with police to man checkposts.
ARD Minister Anisur Rahman said the ban would not apply to frozen chickens from organised poultry units like Arambagh’s, which were in areas not yet declared affected by the Centre. “For now, we are stopping the entry of poultry and products only from the affected areas,” he told mediapersons. Death of chickens was also reported from Howrah, bordering Kolkata. Even in the already affected Nadia and Murshidabad districts, local administration officials said more blocks had reported bird flu.
“Samples of chicken sent from Cooch Behar and Hooghly districts to the High-risk Security Disease Laboratory (HSDL) in Bhopal on Tuesday tested positive,” Rahman said. Nine districts—Birbhum, Murshidabad, South Dinajpur, Burdwan, Nadia, Bankura, Malda, Cooch Behar and Hoogly—out of 19 in West Bengal have so far fallen prey to avian flu.
“Steps are being taken to officially notify both districts as bird flu affected for the next course of action, including culling,” the minister said.
The samples which tested positive were from Dinhata in Cooch Behar and Balagarh in Hooghly. The minister said there was, however, no case of human beings being affected.
The target of culling, set at 20 lakh spread over seven days, was also likely to be raised, he added.
“Initially, there was a lack of awareness among us and villagers were also not keen on allowing us to cull their birds. But now, the operation has gathered pace,” Rahman said and added that he expected the culling target to be met in four or five days, provided the virus did not enter new areas.


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[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

1,000 more vets, docs needed to fight epidemic</ARTTITLE>
24 Jan 2008, 0311 hrs IST

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left>NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: Commenting on the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus, a Union health ministry official said on Wednesday, ''The virus has spread all over the state and it is just a matter of time before samples from Kolkata test positive for H5N1.''

West Bengal animal resource minister, Anisur Rehman, who's helping coordinate culling operations, however, put up a brave front.

''The situation is under control,'' he said in Kolkata on Wednesday. But on the ground, that was far from the truth. The reinforced Rapid Action Teams were behind on culling target of 20 lakh.

Only 7 lakh chickens had been killed so far, an official involved in the process said, but sources in Delhi said less than 5 lakh birds were reported to have been culled. Backyard chicken farms were still reporting flu deaths. So far, about 1.6 lakh chicken have died of flu.

Incessant rain in Malda, South Dinajpur, and North Dinajpur districts had impeded culling operations. The danger of health staff contracting the disease loomed again as Sunil Choudhury, a member of a culling team in South Dinajpur, was admitted to hospital with respiratory problems, one of the symptoms of bird flu in humans.

The entire culling team had to be quarantined, adding to the staff shortage that's preventing the state from accelerating culling operations. In Delhi, an animal husbandry official said, ''The High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal has confirmed a positive result for avian influenza (H5) in samples from Dinhata-I block of Coochbehar district, Balagarh block of Hooghly district and Raniganj block of Burdwan district.''

The other districts already infected with H5N1 include Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Bankura, Murshidabad, Malda and Nadia.

India's animal husbandry commissioner, Dr S K Bandhopadhyaya, told TOI, ''It's possible that a simultaneous exposure occurred. But no trend has emerged in the detection of the virus. So we can't be certain that the virus has spread all over the state. We can still contain the virus with effective culling operations.''

But other experts said the virus may be waiting to be discovered inside the City of Joy.

''The samples from Hooghly that tested positive were picked up a few days back. This means, by now, the virus should already have reached Kolkata, through infected birds smuggled into Kolkata's poultry markets or wild birds dropping infected faeces or feathers,'' an expert said.

Adding to woes, is an acute shortage of veterinary doctors. According to Bandhopadhyaya, seven states have already sent in doctors to support culling and containment operations. Despite these reinforcements, at least 1,000 more vets and doctors were needed to fight the outbreak.

Facing criticism over the tardy pace of the culling operation and also inadequate compensation distributed till now, West Bengal on Wednesday started spot payments to mitigate losses of affected rural families. Till Wednesday evening, nearly Rs 8 lakh in compensation had been disbursed, both on the spot or through panchayats.

The big fear in the epidemic that was confirmed on January 15 is human infection. ''What is worrying about the outbreak in West Bengal is that the virus has mostly affected backyard poultry where birds move freely among humans.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2726294,prtpage-1.cms

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[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

How West Bengal allowed bird flu to fly

Ravik Bhattacharya
Posted online: Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 0046 hrs IST
MARGRAM, KOLKATA, JANUARY 23
With two more districts Cooch Behar and Hooghly reporting fresh deaths of backyard chicken today, bird flu is suspected to have spread to almost half of West Bengal. Only 4.30 lakh birds have been culled as against a target of 20 lakh set on January 19, the government today announced a ban on the entry of poultry and poultry products from affected areas into Kolkata.
If the growing sense of alarm and panic is unmistakable so is the fact that the state government?s response to the virus was infected with delayed action, bad planning and mismanagement.
The Indian Express tracked the origin and the spread of the virus, spoke to key characters in the crisis to piece together what went wrong in the state leading to the fastest spread of bird flu anywhere in India:
Early warning ignored
?It was in mid-December when chickens started dying in hordes in Margram under the Rampurhat sub-division in Birbhum district. Villagers reported these deaths to the Block Development Officer of Rampurhat II, Kakoli Mukherjee, and also to the Block Livestock Development Officer on December 15. Nothing was done. ?Hundreds of birds were dying but block officials brushed aside our complaints,? said Muhammed Zakir Hussain, Sabhadhipati of Margram village panchayat.
?One Mursheda Bibi of Mahipara, who lost 28 chickens, went to Animal Resources Development (ARD) officials on December 28. This time, the BDO called up District Magistrate, Birbhum. But that was all. It was only on January 12 ? almost 15 days later ? that officials visited her house to collect samples form the poultry stocks and sent these to Bhopal. When asked about the delay, T K Some, DM, Birbhum said: ?I received the call from the BDO. But chickens die in various diseases, how do I know it?s bird flu??
Sitting on Bhopal Report
?On Jan 14, Birbhum DM wrote to Sub-Divisional Officer, Rampurhat, Prasanna Kumar Mondol, saying that preliminary tests confirmed the H5N1 virus. The DM ?advised? necessary precautions but nothing was done at the ground level. Village panchayat leaders said that none was told about the implications of the virus.
?Neither any medical team nor any ARD team was in the village until January 16.
?It was only on January 16 afternoon that the district health administration, ARD officials held a meeting and announced culling operations covering an area within 5-km radius of Mahipara. ?On January 15 evening, the Centre declared Bird Flu in Margram. I had no directions what to do, I am not a bird flu expert,? said P K Mondol, the SDO.
?Result: dead birds began to pile up and many households were feasting on the ones that were ill.
Right hand didn?t know left
?While ARD set up culling teams on their own, the state Health Department claimed to be concentrating on door-to-door survey of human influenza.
? Nearly 300 ARD staffers were stranded after just a one-day training. These comprised mostly accountants and Group D staff who had little knowledge about the disease or its containment.
?The Health Department, meanwhile, roped in local boys from different villages and employed them as ?health surveyors? to carry out house-to-house survey and test for avian flu. A majority of them were school dropouts with no prior medical training or experience. They had no testing equipment, not even a thermometer.
?They were told to cover 100 houses a day and fill up forms for each household and specify if anyone had temperature above 38 degrees Celsius. These surveyors, who were promised Rs 50 and refreshments, say they have not been paid and many withdrew.
?The state government failed to put up a proper ?perimeter control,? despite initiating culling operations within a 5-km radius from the epicentre of the outbreak at Margram. Both people and birds were allowed to travel out from Margram to nearby districts.

CPM machinery stood in the way

?In many villages, people led by ruling party leaders resisted culling operations. Margram Panchayat, for instance, is under the control of the Congress. The CPM backed popular sentiment of the villagers hoping to cash in during the ensuing panchayat polls in May-June. Sanjiv Barman, the zonal committee secretary of Rampurhat Block II said: ?If we do not come to their support at this critical juncture they will not support us in the ballot box. We are therefore raising the issue of inadequate compensation.? Result: many villagers refused to give up the birds for culling.
?Leaders complained of lack of an awareness campaign before culling operations began. Often, culling teams went to villages at odd hours without any prior information and villagers were not prepared to hand over the birds. ?No one told us about the disease and one morning, they came and demanded my poultry. The birds were out. I asked them to come another day. I kept waiting with my poultry but no one turned up,? said Sheikh Amzad of Buropithtola in Margram.
?In some places like Nalhati, culling teams were beaten up. A day after culling operations began, local CPM members took out rallies in a number of villages in Margram, Nalhati and Mayureshwar areas, demanding better compensation for affected farmers.
?In Parulia village, when the team reached on January 16, about 100 people, led by Ananda Bagdi, the local CPM Panchayat Pradhan, resisted the culling. They had two demands: culling teams had to take their permission before entering the village and an upward revision of the compensation. The culling teams backed off.
?There was no effort on the part of CPM leaders to use their fabled party network to spread awareness about the dangers of the virus and co-operate with authorities.
?Party?s state secretary Biman Bose issued an alert only yesterday ? a week after the outbreak.
?As the bird flu virus spread, the Ministers were distracted by the CPM party congress in Kolkata. Both the ARD and the Health Ministries are held by the CPM. It was only on January 20, five days after official announcement of the outbreak, that Anisur Rehman, state ARD minister, visited Birbhum and Margram.
?Surya Kant Mishra, state health minister, visited Bolpur in Birbhum on January 22. No other minister visited Ground Zero.
When contacted, ARD Minister Rehman said: ?It?s for the first time that the state had been experiencing the deadly virus. We are doing our best to contain the virus.? Said Health Minister Surya Kanta Mishra: ?Our men are doing their best. It is everyone?s duty to coordinate such operations. There has been no human infection, as far as I am concerned it is not spreading. It?s the media that is spreading the panic. There has been no human infection.?

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[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

Flu in 2 more dists, Kolkata sealed

Express news service
Posted online: Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 0302 hrs IST
Kolkata, January 23
As bird flu spread across two more districts, the state government moved in to seal Kolkata to produce from the affected areas.
The state?s Animal Resources Development Department, which made the request for sealing, will provide officials to man the checkposts with the police. The police are also to seal the affected areas so no poultry products move out either.
Today, the district police intercepted a lorry smuggling 9,500 chicks out of Bolpur. The driver has been arrested. On Wednesday, the Express had reported how the police, tipped off by the ARD, had intercepted two trucks full of birds at the border of Birbhum, the epicenter of the epidemic, and Murshidabad.
Anisur Rahman, the ARD minister, said the ban will not apply to frozen chicken from organised poultry units like Arambagh?s.
Fresh deaths of backyard chicken were reported from Dinhata in Cooch Behar and Balagarh in Hooghly. So far, 34 blocks and four municipal areas in Birbhum, Murshidabad, Malda, South Dinajpur, Bankura, Burdwan, Cooch Behar, Hooghly and Nadia have been declared as affected.
The government has managed to cull 4.30 lakh chicken against the target of 20 lakh set on January 19. Rahman said he expected the target to be met in four or five days is the virus does not enter new areas. ARD officials however, said it was difficult to promise it with certainty.
?Killing backyard poultry is proving to be a very complicated job,? a senior official at the ARD department?s headquarters at Writers? Buildings said.
?Initially, there was a lack of awareness among us,? Rahman admitted, ?and villagers were also not keen on allowing us to cull their birds. But now, the operation has gathered pace.?
The government has already deployed 640 teams for culling. Another 110 teams will join them tomorrow.
The state government has constituted a corpus fund of Rs 12 crore, of which
Rs 6 crore has already been paid to poultry owners. ?We plan to increase the compensation. We have asked the Centre for Rs 8 crore as assistance,? the minister said. The government, he said, was also bringing in veterinary doctors from Orissa, Assam and Tamil Nadu for supervising culling operations.
The officials of the Japanese and the US consulates met principal secretary of the animal resource development department Dilip Chakrabarty today. The dignitaries? aim was to check with the principal secretary the extent and government measures to contain the disease.
Nepal, Bhutan and several countries in the Middle East, which used to import chicken from Arambagh Hatcheries, have stopped orders.

http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/264991.html

 

[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=780 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top colSpan=2>?No entry? of chicken in Alipore zoo kitchens

Suchetana Haldar
Posted online: Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 0312 hrs IST
Kolkata, January 23
It is not just the airlines that have taken chicken off their on-flight menu.
Now, the big cats of the Alipore Zoological Gardens will have to skip chicken meals as well.
Lions, tigers and leopards at the zoo are fed on a diet of buffalo meat.
Usually animals, who are sick or in need of a change in menu, are fed chicken.
?With the bird flu outbreak, we have decided to take chicken off the menu and replace it with pork,? said Deputy Director, Alipore Zoological Gardens, Piyali Chattopadhyay.
Meanwhile, the zoo authorities can only thank their lucky stars that the python is hibernating.
For, the giant needs a live chicken to keep it going for a week.
It is expected to end its winter slumber in another month.
?We will have to serve rabbits, instead of chicken, once it is active again,? said Chattopadhyay.
The big cats and the python are the only zoo residents dependent on poultry for their feed.
The zoo is on alert after the flu outbreak.
?We do not have any domestic fowl. As far as wild birds are concerned, we are keeping close tabs on them. As of now, no abnormality has been detected,? she added.
No migratory birds have arrived at the zoo as yet.
According to the authorities, the birds are not expected till February.
The Alipore zoo has drawn flak from bird lovers and wildlife enthusiasts who claim that it no longer provides a congenial habitat for migratory birds.
But for once, zoo officials are relieved that the winged visitors have given the venue a miss.
?The zoo is safe. There is no need to panic,? said an official.

http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/264996.html

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[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=articleheader>Packed with poultry, state runs high risk
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleauthor>G.S. MUDUR </TD></TR><TR><TD class=story align=left><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=172 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

New Delhi, Jan. 23: High density of poultry across Bengal has aided the rapid transmission of the virus and could lead to dangerous persistence of the infection for months, scientists warned today.
The warning came as Hooghly ? across the river from the northern fringes of Calcutta ? and Cooch Behar joined the bird-flu list, drawing almost half of Bengal?s districts into the footprint of the disease.
The number of poultry, including chickens, ducks and ducklings, in Bengal is many times higher than in Nandurbar and Jalgaon in Maharashtra and in Imphal East in Manipur, the sites of previous bird flu outbreaks.
The number of hens in Birbhum is 860,000, a figure higher than all major poultry birds in Nandurbar, where the H5N1 avian influenza virus had surfaced in February 2006, according to the latest poultry census.
Some of Bengal?s affected districts are smaller in area than Nandurbar or Jalgaon. ?The result is a very high density of poultry that can facilitate quick transmission of the virus,? a senior scientist said.
?Bengal?s districts also have a higher density of human population, which is also worrying,? an official said. Nandurbar had a population density of 260 people per sqkm, but Birbhum has 658 people per sqkm, while Hooghly has 1,590 people per sqkm.​

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Murshidabad is home to more than five million major poultry birds, including 1.8 million hens, 800,000 chicks being raised for eggs, 400,000 chicks for meat, and 890,000 ducks.
Jalgaon is twice the size of Murshidabad, but had a total poultry population of 600,000 birds. Nandurbar, slightly smaller than Murshidabad, had 670,000 birds.
In a high poultry-density zone, the virus can jump from bird to bird far more easily than it would have in a low density zone.
A laboratory study in the US had shown that domestic ducks infected with the H5N1 virus may be silent carriers of the infection that can shed the virus without symptoms.
Ducks are far more common in Bengal than in any of the three previous Indian sites. Burdwan has 1.1 million ducks, while Hooghly has 800,000 ducks.
The US study had prompted the World Health Organisation to recommend that people living in a bird flu-affected area take the same precautions with healthy ducks that they take with sick or dead birds.
The WHO had said ducks should not be kept as pets or allowed to enter households and that water for human use should not be drawn from open ponds used by domestic ducks.
?The spread of the virus aided by the high density of poultry could also allow it to persist longer and have a greater chance to move into humans,? said Shahid Jameel, head of virology at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi.
The H5N1 virus is now highly inefficient in infecting humans. But scientists fear that it could acquire mutations in genes that will allow it to efficiently infect humans.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080124/jsp/frontpage/story_8820056.jsp​

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[Treyfish]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

:tiphat: <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=450 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=headline>Avian flu spreads to new districts in WB</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=450 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=news>
Saugar Sengupta | Kolkata</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>
Though there was no official word from anyone in the Health or Animal Resources Ministry, private sources suggest that a lax Bengal administration may have 'exported' bird flu to Bihar, Orissa and even Jharkhand.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>A day after four trucks loaded with chickens and eggs were intercepted at the borders of Birbhum and Murshidabad districts one more truck carrying 9,000 birds was held at Bolpur on Wednesday. This amid reports that the avian fever had spread to Hooghly near Kolkata and CoochBehar in North Bengal bordering Assam.
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>Sources, unwilling to talk on record, said that the birds were heading for North Bengal. And as the National Highway leading to North Bengal crisscrosses through Pakur district of Jharkhand and Purnea, Katihar, Kishanganj districts of Bihar "it is not unlikely that some birds might have been sold there" an official said. State police refused to comment but said it was the duty of their counterparts in other States to apprehend the smuggled birds.
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>On Tuesday at least 2 lakh eggs and 35,000 fowls were intercepted while they were being smuggled away to avoid financial losses sources said. An apathetic Government only aggravated the situation by delaying decisions on enforcing culling orders fearing an electoral backlash in the coming panchayat elections.
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>Interestingly, the Opposition which finds itself in a win-win situation has been keeping silent.
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>On Wednesday, Animal Resources Department sources said the culling rate had picked up with more than 2 lakh birds having been killed. The Government had set itself a target of 20 lakh birds which might however be revised upwardly in the coming days. Government sources said Wednesday's intercepted birds would be sent for culling adding however, "none of them showed signs of illness."
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>Meanwhile, reports that in some areas pigs have been affected by flu has unnerved the Health administration with Health Director Dr Sanchita Bakshi saying "it is not unnatural for human beings to contact the disease" and added "fortunately we do not have any such report till now." Another official said if the virus starts mutating then the situation would go out of control. With Wednesday's new areas coming under bird flu the total number of affected districts went up to nine.
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>According to latest reports several thousand people have been running fever in Birbhum district where the disease started from. While Health Minister Dr Suryakanta Mishra said the virus was under control his officers could not explain how so many people fell ill simultaneously from a single district. One officer however informed many of those suffering from fever handled their backyard poultry before the outbreak was officially reported. "It is however impossible to conduct checks on all of them. And we have to keep a strong vigil and keep our contingency apparatus ready." :tiphat:
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http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=STATES&file_name=state1.txt&counter_img=1</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news vAlign=top colSpan=2>
:tiphat: Helblindi</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

[Treyfish]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=left>Still Current at: 24 January 2008
</TD></TR><TR><TD align=left>Updated: 23 January 2008
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</TD><TD vAlign=top width="100%">India
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This advice has been reviewed with an amendment to the Health section(Avian Influenza). The overall level of the advice has not changed.



Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)


On 15 January 2008, the Government of India announced that the H5N1 avian influenza virus was found in dead chickens in Margram, Birbhum district, a village approximately 280 km from Kolkata (Calcutta) in West Bengal. The virus has since spread to seven areas with cofirmed cases in the following districts; Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, Murshidbad, South Dinaipur, Mrgram and Malda. Over 300,000 poultry birds have been culled and the West Bengal state government have authorised the culling of up to 2,000,000 birds within a 10km radius of the outbreaks No human infections ordeaths have been confirmed.:tiphat: http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front...7029390590&a=KCountryAdvice&aid=1013618387153

 

[Treyfish]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

Salesmanship in the time of flu
Press Trust Of India Posted online: Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 2317 hrs




KOLKATA: : As panic-stricken people of bird flu-hit West Bengal have removed chicken from their meal, a chicken seller has found a novel way to woo customers by offering onion, tomato and garlic ? key ingredients of the dish ? free with every purchase of the bird. :tiphat: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/264780.html

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01230804/Bihar_Culling.html

Commentary http://www.recombinomics.com/feed.xml

H5N1 Culling Expands to Bihar India

Recombinomics Commentary 11:51
January 23, 2008

Katihar district authorities have been directed to coordinate with their counterpart in Malda and carry out culling of chicken in six panchayats identified as Khasota, Mimaua, Deogaon, Sitalpati, Garghatu and Anarsinghpur in Katihar district, he said.

The above comments describe the culling of chickens in the Katihar district of Bihar, which is adjacent to West Bengal (see satellite map). Although Bihar claims no poultry deaths, the culling in areas adjacent to the Malda district in West Bengal, suggests H5N1 may be moving into the region.

Today H5N1 was confirmed in Cooch Behar and samples were collected from ten dead migratory birds, suggesting that the H5N1 spread is being facilitated by migratory and domestic wild birds. Two dead teals near Calcutta have been described previously, and dead crows, pigeons, hawks, and owls have been noted in areas with excessive poultry deaths, including multiple districts where H5N1 has been confirmed.

The dead wild birds suggest that the sealing of the West Bengal border will not be effective, and H5N1 will continue to spread into regions adjacent top West Bengal.

.

 

[HenryN]

Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+

Bird flu battle keeps India on edge <TABLE style="WIDTH: 405px; HEIGHT: 44px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=caption style="WIDTH: 360px">
January 24 2008 at 02:39AM </TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 1px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cccccc" colSpan=2></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=23 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=svarticletext>[SIZE=+1][/SIZE]Margram, India - India's West Bengal region admitted on Wednesday it was falling behind in its battle against bird flu as the virus spread to more than half the densely populated state.

Despite reinforcements from neighbouring states, at least 1 000 more vets and doctors were needed to help fight the poultry virus outbreak that began over a week ago, state animal resources minister Anisur Rahaman said.

"We don't have the infrastructure to battle this epidemic. Bird flu is spreading to new areas. Thousands of chickens are dropping dead every day," he told reporters.

Hundreds more culling teams had been sent to 10 districts where bird flu had been confirmed, but not all of them were accompanied by doctors, he said. West Bengal has 19 districts.

"We've asked neighbouring states to send at least 1 000 veterinary and human doctors," said Rahaman. "We've urged the federal government to send expert teams and doctors to assess the situation and help the culling teams."

The previous target of culling two million birds had been raised to 2.2 million "in the next seven days as the disease has spread to two more districts", he said. Nearly 400 000 birds have already been killed.

The new outbreak - the third and worst to hit India - began in Margram village, 240km from the state capital Calcutta.

India has so far not had any human cases of bird flu but Rahaman said he feared the disease would spread to humans with hundreds of people reporting flu symptoms in the state of 80 million.

"Naked children are playing with chickens in courtyards in affected villages. Chickens are roaming in the kitchen while women are cooking. It's a very worrisome situation," he said.

"Reports keep pouring in that many people in flu-affected districts are suffering fever, cold and cough," state health minister Surya Kanta Mishra added. Humans with bird flu exhibit similar symptoms.

People typically catch bird flu by coming into direct contact with infected poultry. Experts fear a pandemic if the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu mutates into a form easily transmissible between humans.

An AFP correspondent in the bird flu zone said proper isolation procedures were not being followed as villagers without protective gear milled about health workers carrying out the culling.

Culling teams were facing resistance from locals but villagers started handing over their poultry Wednesday after the government began giving out immediate compensation for the dead birds.

The outbreak was expected to hit poultry owners hard.

"Most of my chickens have been culled," said Jayanta Bhattacharya, a poultry owner whose farm had 30 000 chickens laying 80 000 eggs each week.

"I've already suffered a loss of 400 000 rupees."

Sri Lanka banned imports on Wednesday of live birds and chickens from India, a government official said.

Migratory birds have been largely blamed for the global spread of the disease which has killed over 200 people worldwide since 2003.

Meanwhile in neighbouring Bangladesh, nearly 2 000 chickens died of bird flu at a farm 20km near the capital Dhaka, prompting authorities to seal off the area and slaughter hundreds of birds.

All 1,963 birds in the farm found dead Tuesday were killed by the lethal H5N1 strain, government spokesperson Ayesha Khatun said.

Bangladesh reported its first H5N1 outbreak in February 2007. Since then it has been detected in 26 of the country's 64 districts, prompting the slaughter of at least 355 000 birds.

Authorities said the situation has worsened in the past week but insisted it was contained and erupting only sporadically.

"We don't think the situation is as bad as in West Bengal," livestock department director Salahuddin Khan said.

Experts differed, saying the situation was far worse than government claims and that farmers were refraining from reporting many cases.
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http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=nw20080123234241368C627751