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India (incl. West Bengal) - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Culling resumes in Malda district, compensation hiked

spacer.gif
Malda (WB), Dec 17: Culling resumed in the bird flu-affected areas of Malda district this morning after being hampered due to protests by poultry owners.

spacer.gif
<!--end of related-box-j-a-->The culling is being conducted at 13 affected mouzas of Englishbazar block in the district after out break of the avian influenza.

Official sources said that the culling had begun last night itself after it remained suspended during the day as villagers were unwilling to give their chickens until compensation money was paid.

The district magistrate, Sreedhar Ghosh, said that Rs 40 lakh had been sanctioned as compensation for the villagers whose chickens would be killed. A total 16,000 birds would be culled over three days by 144 workers working in 18 teams.

Meanwhile, borders with Bangladesh and Assam have been sealed to stop entry of chickens and chicken products from that areas following the reports of bird flu there, West Bengal Animal Resource Development Minister Anisur Rahaman said at Baharampore in Murshidabad district.

A state-wide alert has also been sounded against the disease, he said.

Authorities have announced a hike in the rate of compensation to be paid to the poultry owners. The compensation for ducklings has been raised from Rs 10 to Rs 25. The poultry owners would be paid Rs 75 for each duck instead of earlier Rs 40 compensation.

The compensation for a full-grown chicken has been increased to Rs 50 from Rs 35, the minister said. Poultry owners would receive compensation also for the destroyed eggs and chicks, he said.

http://www.zeenews.com/states/2008-12-17/491753news.html
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Culling on in West Bengal?s bird flu-hit Malda (Lead)
December 17th, 2008 - 10:03 pm ICT by IANS -
Kolkata, Dec 17 (IANS) Full-fledged culling operations were going on in West Bengal?s bird flu-hit Malda district, a minister said Wednesday, adding precautionary measures were being taken to stop further spread of the deadly H5N1 virus in surrounding areas.?So far the culling operations are going on at Narhatta and Satgheria villages under the English Bazar police station in Malda without any resistance from the people. Farmers are willingly handing over their chickens and ducks to the cullers,? Anisur Rehman, state animal resources development (ARD) department minister, told IANS.
Rehman said: ?An additional team of five cullers have been sent to the affected areas on Wednesday, along with the seventeen teams of 85 men, who are working there since Tuesday. Our aim is to cull the maximum number of birds by Wednesday night, so that we can wrap up the operation by Thursday.?
He said besides carrying out the culling operations, the officials were also taking all possible precautionary measures to stop further spread of the H5N1 avian flu virus outside the affected area.
?Already we have barred transportation of poultry products across West Bengal-Assam border since the avian flu has hit Assam too. Sale and consumption of poultry products within the notified area (three km radius from the affected place) have been banned.
?Our officers are talking to people from time-to-time to make them aware of the effects of avian flu.
?Strict vigilance is being kept across the district for any fresh outbreak of the disease as well as to see if people are abiding by the precautionary measures recommended by the ARD,? the minister said.
At least 250 birds were culled by Wednesday noon. ?The culling operations will be carried on till late night. Only Thursday morning we will be able to tell the exact number of poultry culled Wednesday,? ARD principal secretary Dilip Chakraborty told IANS.
The ARD officials have decided to cull 16,000 chickens and ducks in all. Farmers were being given a compensation of Rs.20-50 per poultry depending on its age.
A two-day mopping up operation will begin after the culling operations were over.
Seventeen culling teams with a total of 85 workers - wearing white protective suits, gloves and masks - Tuesday started killing and burying chickens and ducks at Narhatta and Satgheria villages in Malda, 350 km from here.
In January, over 200,000 birds were culled when avian flu was detected in several districts. An outbreak of bird flu had been detected in Malda in March and more than 50,000 birds were culled.
This is the second outbreak in the district of the dreaded disease caused by the H5N1 virus.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal...engals-bird-flu-hit-malda-lead_100132196.html
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Culling continues amid further deaths


Special Correspondent







KOLKATA: Even as culling entered the second day in parts of West Bengal?s Malda district, where avian flu has struck, fresh deaths of poultry birds were reported from surrounding places on Wednesday, giving rise to fears of the disease spreading.
Officials of the district animal resources development department have been asked to collect samples from birds which died in the Rathua area and send them for examination, District Magistrate Sridhar Ghosh told The Hindu over telephone from Malda.
So far, more than 3,000 poultry birds were culled in the villages surrounding the area where birds had died of the disease, he said.
Twenty-two teams were engaged in the culling operations and another 12 were expected to join them on Thursday. More than 16,000 poultry birds were to be destroyed.
?Authorities in all districts of the State have been instructed to intensify surveillance in the wake of the bird flu deaths in parts of Malda district,? Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahaman said.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/18/stories/2008121854711100.htm
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Source: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080076896&ch=12/18/2008 12:32:00 AM

WB: Culling faces villagers' opposition
Monideepa Banerjie
Wednesday, December 17, 2008, (Malda, (West Bengal))

Malda district in West Bengal may have imported the bird flu from across the border in Bangladesh, or even from Assam. The administration set a target of culling 16000 birds by Thursday on the ground. But the exercise floundered, with the villagers refusing to part with their poultry against the compensation offered by the government.

Local villagers are protesting that the birds are not sick. The police have been called in to try and cool frayed tempers.

"My expenses must be reimbursed. I had taken a loan of Rs 1 lakh as loan that has to be repaid. Otherwise I won't allow culling," said Gokul Mondal, poultry farm owner.

The government has enhanced compensation to Rs 40 for a broiler, Rs 50 for a desi hen and Rs 75 for a duck. But the resistance to culling is vocal at several villages where people are also asking why the bird flu has recurred in West Bengal where 42 lakh birds have been culled earlier.

The administration suspects poor mopping up operations last time, or migration from Assam or Bangladesh which is barely 25 kilometers away.

"There is bird flu in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government is not taking action, their diseased birds may come here," said S K Ghosh, District Magistrate, Malda.

Whatever the cause of recurrence, the district administration has a mammoth task ahead. Thursday's culling deadline seems destined to fail, as till late Wednesday afternoon barely 1,000 birds were culled, which was not even ten per cent of the target.
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Fresh bird deaths in Malda
PTI
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 AT 11:12 PM
Tags: bird flu, culling, West Bengal
Close...
<!--Article bodyContent--> Malda (WB): Fresh reports of death of poultry and crows were reported today from three areas of Malda district, where the N5N1 disease has returned after 11 months, as 22 culling teams targetted to kill 16,000 birds in three days.
The fresh bird deaths were reported from Baharlal in Ratua Block 1, Chandmoni 1 and 2 blocks, where blood samples were collected by Animal Resources Development personnel for for tests, District Magistrate Sreedhar Ghosh said.
The number of culling teams has been raised to 22 from 18 and 6000 of 16,000 birds were eliminated by evening, in two gram panchayat areas of English Bazar block, he said.
The teams would continue to work at night, he said.
The chief medical officer has been asked to inquire, about a family of six and two couples suffering from fever for the past week in Narhatta gram panchayat area after death of chickens in their households, he said.
Compensation for culling poultry has been raised following resistance from villagers, Animal Resource Development minister Anisur Rahaman said in Baharampore in Murshidabad district.
The minister said compensation for a full-grown chicken has been raised to Rs 50 from Rs 35, Rs 75 for ducks from Rs 40 and for ducklings Rs 25 from Rs 10.
Poultry owners would also receive compensation for eggs and chicks destroyed, the DM said.
He said Rs 40 lakh has been sanctioned as compensation for poultry farmers.
The borders of the district with Bangladesh and Assam, have been sealed to stop entry of poultry and poultry products.
A state-wide alert had been sounded yesterday.

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/2008/12/17230038/Fresh-bird-deaths-in-Malda.html
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | North Bengal: Chicken deaths spread to new areas

Chicken deaths spread to new areas

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Malda, Dec. 17:

More than 400 chicken have died in Ratua I block in the past 24 hours, a day after culling of birds began in the adjacent Narhatta gram panchayat.


Although there was no culling in Ratua, the district magistrate of Malda, Sridhar Ghosh, said over 8,000 birds had been culled in Narhatta till 7pm.

A former CPM zilla parishad member, Sahanur Alam, said the poultry had been dying in seven to eight villages in the Chandmoni gram panchayat area of Ratua block I. He added that the information had been passed on to the animal resources development (ARD) department.

However, Ghosh said reports had come in from three gram panchayat areas in Ratua I where chickens were dying. ?This is a worrying development and I have asked the ARD department to send at least three teams to the block.? The affected areas in Ratua are barely 10km from the Narhatta gram panchayat.

Deputy director of the ARD department Nikhil Kumar **** said teams had already been dispatched to Ratua and asked to collect blood samples and send them to their regional laboratory in Belgachhia, Calcutta.

Ghosh said three more teams had been added to the 18 formed yesterday. ?However, 13 teams were at work in the Narhatta area today,? he said. The total culling target in Narhatta alone is 15,000.

The culling teams faced resistance from villagers in Durgapur and Anandipur. After 200 chickens had been culled, the locals forced the health workers out of their areas in the evening.

?The villagers were also not satisfied with the compensation as they can get nearly Rs 100 a kilo for chicken in the market. (The department is paying Rs 20 to Rs 50 for each country chicken and Rs 40 for broiler, depending on their size.) Two teams that went to Syedpur and Dubri villages had to return without culling a single bird,? said Akram Hossain, the CPM sabhapati of the Englishbazar panchayat samiti.

Hossain said he, along with the block development officer, would try to convince the villagers tomorrow.

Hossain added that the culling teams had today chanced upon three large poultry farms in the Syedpur and Kotwali areas in Englishbazar. ?While two farms have 10,000 chickens each, the other one has thousand birds. Their owners, though disappointed at the loss after setting them up by taking loans, have agreed to have the poultry culled,? the sabhapati said.

The district health department has been collecting blood samples from people running fever in Narhatta.
Click to expand...

?Health workers are going door-to-door and have collected samples from the affected people. We have asked them to come to the district hospital for free treatment,? said Srikanta Roy, the chief medical officer of health of Malda.

State ARD secretary Dilip Chakraborty said at Writers' Buildings today that 18 teams were operating in Malda to tackle the outbreak in the district and 155 chickens had been culled till yesterday.

?I don?t have the figures for today, but the district administration told me that 155 birds had been culled till Tuesday. More than 90 people of the ARD and health departments are at work to handle the Malda situation. I have been told by the district administration that the disease hasn?t spread to other districts,? said Chakraborty.

A BSF alert is already in place so that chickens are not transported from Bangladesh into our border districts, he added.​
<cite cite="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081218/jsp/siliguri/story_10268567.jsp">The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | North Bengal & Sikkim | Chicken deaths spread to new areas</cite>
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Avian flu: culling continues in Malda district amid further poultry deaths


Special Correspondent







KOLKATA: Even as culling entered the second day in parts of West Bengal?s Malda district, where avian flu has struck, fresh deaths of poultry birds were reported from surrounding places on Wednesday, giving rise to fears of the disease spreading.
Officials of the district animal resources development department have been asked to collect samples from birds which died in the Rathua area and send them for examination, District Magistrate Sridhar Ghosh told The Hindu over telephone from Malda.
So far, more than 3,000 poultry birds have been culled in the villages surrounding the area where birds had died of the disease, he said.
More than 16,000 poultry birds were to be culled.
?Authorities in all districts of the State have been instructed to intensify surveillance in the wake of the bird flu deaths in parts of Malda district,? Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahaman said.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/18/stories/2008121859441400.htm
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=articleheader>SLOW AS USUAL
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=story align=left>
There is no alternative to immediate action with epidemics like bird flu. West Bengal, by now, has had a record number of chances to learn this ? almost 40 outbreaks here (and in Tripura) in the first six months of this year. But culling is yet to pick up emergency-level speed in Malda, where a fairly severe outbreak had been confirmed on Monday. The laboratory in Bhopal, which did the tests, had sent its verdict to the Writers? Buildings by Monday afternoon. The latter had announced that culling would begin in Malda by Tuesday morning. But official instructions from the state government had not reached the district administration even on Monday night. So, culling did not begin until late Tuesday evening, and then too very slowly, although the government declared that full-fledged culling had started since early afternoon. Another reason why culling could not be started immediately was that the culling team had to set out to the villages without any compensation money for the people who were bringing their birds to be killed. This was because the bank draft was taking a while to be encashed. So it is a combination of poor coordination and red tape that has delayed the prescribed measures in Malda.
The Centre has quite rightly decided to be severe with West Bengal this time. In spite of being reminded several times about the repeated outbreaks in the state this year, and of being told to reckon with the fact that bird flu had reached alarming levels in neighbouring Assam, West Bengal did not take adequate measures. It does not show the state government in a very dignified light to be asked to report to the Centre every morning, without fail, about the day?s progress in dealing with the situation in Malda. If other states in the Northeast can tackle similar situations satisfactorily, there is no reason why West Bengal should fail repeatedly to combine effective awareness-raising among poultry owners, efficient culling and promptly paid compensation.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081218/jsp/opinion/story_10264799.jsp​
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

niman said:
Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/12170804/H5N1_Malda_Crows.html
Click to expand...
Commentary

Dead Crows In Malda West Bengal Raise H5N1 Concerns
Recombinomics Commentary 16:17
December 17, 2008

Hundreds of crows have died since yesterday in Budhia village at Norhatta in English Bazaar block, the spot where more than 3,500 chickens died of Bird Flu, causing panic among the people.

The villagers suspect that the dead crows might have eaten the carcass of the Bird Flu affected chickens. The CMOH, Malda, Mr Srikanta Roy, said that this could be a possibility.

Despite the situation, there is no awareness campaign at Norhatta against consumption of chicken. Children could be seen playing around with the dead crows that had simply fallen off the trees in the area. It may be noted that the local gram panchayat yesterday decided to inform people that they should not eat chicken.

Mostaq Mian, a resident of Budhia village, said that despite warnings, the people are consuming the dead chickens.

The above description of crows dying in Malda (see 2009 map) and villagers eating the dead poultry repeats events described in January when H5N1 was discovered in Birbhum, just to the south in West Bengal (see 2008 map). The dead crows raise concerns of local spread by wild birds or wild animals. Although there is little doubt that the crows are H5N1 infected, India has never reported H5N1 in any host other than dead or dying poultry.

Last season crows also died in Bangladesh, which were H5N1 confirmed. In addition, dogs and jackals died in Tripura after eating infected birds, adding to concerns that these outbreaks offer opportunities for spread and evolution in mammalian hosts.

The same is true for the villagers eating the birds, which can lead to transmission which birds are prepared. Symptomatic villagers were largely just observed last season, and those that did not develop pneumonia were not tested. The same appears to be true for symptomatic patients in Assam.

However, as was seen in the recent confirmed case in Cambodia, or prior cases in Egypt, H5N1 can cause milder disease that does not lead to pneumonia.

Thus, the hundreds of dead crows create additional concerns that are not addressed by testing in India.


.
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Source: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/mismanagement-rules-second-day-of-culling/399981/

Mismanagement rules second day of culling
Express News Service
Posted: Dec 18, 2008 at 0437 hrs IST

Kolkata Even on the second day of the culling operations in Malda the administration had no clue as to how many birds need to be culled.

Initially the government had announced that the target was 16,500 birds in Narhata and surrounding areas in English Bazar. But on Wednesday, the cullers discovered three poultries with 21,000 birds in the Dhubri village. It has sent the district administration in a tizzy as it has confirmed that there are more affected birds in the area than the government had estimates.

?Our pervious estimate of the number of birds in the area was not accurate. It seems that there are more birds in the bird flu-hit areas. We have added four more culling teams and now 22 teams are on the field for the culling operations,? said Sridhar Ghosh, District Magistrate of Malda.

The government, meanwhile, has admitted to mismanagement in the culling process.

?Yesterday there was public resistance because the compensation money could not reach the block divisional officer (BDO). Since an actions were required, we were not able to send the money on time,? said Dilip Chakraborty, Principal Secretary, state Animal Resources Development Department (ARDD).

He also conceded the fact that on Tuesday only 154 chickens were culled in Malda.

The culling operations were disrupted on Wednesday after villagers in Shahidpara, Dhubri and Budhia resisted the drive.

Even police intervention could not resolve the issue. Villagers refused to let the culling teams enter the villages and protested against the low compensation paid for the birds.

Ultimately, the culling teams had to return in the evening without doing any work.

?We know that villagers in certain pockets are protesting against the culling operations. We have, therefore, decided to rope in various agencies like Al-Amin Mission, UNICEF and madarsas to make the villagers aware of the problem,,? said Chakraborty.

?We have also published awareness posters, which we will be distribute among the villagers,? he added.

According to sources in the district administration, unnatural deaths of many birds were reported on Wednesday from three gram panchayats in Ratua, nearly 20 km from Narhata, where culling is underway at present.

According to reports, around 900 domestic birds have died in Chandmoni I and II and Baharal.
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Bihar put on high alert after outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal
Patna, Dec 19: A high alert has been sounded in Bihar in the wake of outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal.

The State's Animal Husbandry department is maintaining a strict vigil and is carefully working to check the presence of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus among the chicken in the state after reports of outbreak of bird flu in Malda district.
Blood samples are being taken from the chicken for testing at Bhopal's high security Animal Diseases Laboratory (HSADL) to find out that whether any of the birds is infected with H5N1 virus.
"We are taking blood samples from hens. The serum extracted from them will be tested to check the presence of virus so as to prevent the spread of bird flu in our state," said Manoj Kumar, Junior Scientist, Animal Husbandry Department, Patna.
Around 16, 000 chicken and ducks were culled by veterinary workers in Malda district on Tuesday in an effort to contain the latest outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in the region.
Since Bihar and West Bengal share borders, authorities in Bihar are all the more watchful regarding any spread of the disease in the state.
Experts have advised that the border between the two states should be sealed to prevent possible inflow of infection from West Bengal.
"It is very necessary to seal the border if the disease has come near Bihar border. Last time also, the border was sealed and so this time also it should be done," said S.R. Singh, Principal, Veterinary College, Patna.
There have been no confirmed human cases of H5N1 in India since the first outbreak was reported in Maharashtra in 2006.

http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-61987.html
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

East India increases bird flu cull, more testing

Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:32pm IST

By Sujoy Dhar
KOLKATA (Reuters) - State authorities in east India stepped up poultry culling amid fears the latest outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus had spread to new areas, officials said on Thursday.
Veterinary workers in protective suits have killed 9,373 birds in the Malda district of West Bengal since Tuesday despite resistance from villagers who want more compensation.
Malda authorities have sent more samples for testing after hundreds of chickens died in the past two days in a different area of the district, about 10 km away from the village regarded as the centre of the latest outbreak, officials said.
Authorities also increased the number of birds they plan to kill in West Bengal by 3,500 to 20,000 after discovering that there were more poultry farms in the area than first thought.
"The start was slow but we have stepped up culling since yesterday. We hope to complete the work by tomorrow," said N.K. ****, a senior animal resource development official in Malda.
Hundreds of thousands of poultry are already being culled in Assam and neighbouring Meghalaya.
Health workers and medical experts are also monitoring about 100 villagers in and around Guwahati who had shown signs of H5N1 but tests so far indicated none had the virus, health officials said.
There have been no human cases of H5N1 confirmed in India.
Villagers and poultry farmers in Malda are being paid between 20 and 50 rupees for each bird killed, depending on its age, but tempers flared when veterinary teams reached the affected areas without spot payments.
Villagers hid their stock to avoid culling, some even beating up veterinary workers, according to local media reports.
"The villagers continue to resist the cull, demanding double the prices for grown-up chickens," senior West Bengal government official Sridhar Ghosh told Reuters.
The outbreak in West Bengal was confirmed late on Monday after tests on dead birds, a major blow to the state's 5 billion rupee industry.

SMUGGLED SOUTH
Neighbouring states have also been taking precautions such as banning birds from affected states. Authorities in Orissa to the south culled 2,000 chickens as a precautionary measure.
Smugglers had tried to sneak birds across the border from West Bengal into Orissa in a passenger bus, officials said.
"We cannot take risks. The chicks may have been infected. Therefore they were culled Thursday morning," senior Orissa government official Bishnupada Sethi told Reuters.
On Tuesday, Orissa banned the import of poultry from neighbouring states and is checking vehicles at its border.
Monday's confirmation marked the third outbreak of the disease this year in West Bengal, where 4 million birds were culled in January in what the World Health Organisation (WHO) has described as India's worst-ever bird flu outbreak.
Experts fear the H5N1 virus might mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people across the world.
There have been no human cases of H5N1 in India since the virus was first reported in Maharashtra in 2006.
According to the World Health Organisation, H5N1 bird flu has infected 391 people in 15 countries and killed 247 of them since the virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003.
(Additional reporting by Jatindra Dash)

http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-37092520081218?sp=true
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Over 10,000 birds culled in West Bengal?s Malda (Lead)
Dec 18th, 2008 | By Sindh Today | Category: Health
Kolkata, Dec 18 (IANS) Over 10,000 birds were culled in West Bengal?s bird flu hit Malda district where the process is expected to be over by Friday, a minister said Thursday.
?Thirty teams of a total of 150 veterinary workers are operating in full swing Thursday at Narhatta and Satgheria villages under English Bazar police station in Malda.
?Over 10,000 poultry birds have been culled till afternoon. If work progresses so rapidly, we will hit the target of culling 25,000 chickens and ducks by Friday night,? Anisur Rehman, minister of state Animal Resources Development (ARD) department, told IANS.
The culling operations Thursday will continue till midnight and start again Friday morning.
?The government has sanctioned Rs.8 million for culling operations and payment of compensation to villagers in the affected areas. Out of this amount, Rs.300,000 has been paid as compensation so far,? he said.
Meanwhile, officials from the ARD department have spoken to the villagers, who were resisting the operations to demand higher compensation, and persuaded to co-operate with the workers engaged in culling operations.
?There were some problems with the villagers over compensation Thursday morning. But our officials have been able to persuade them to co-operate with us. Now culling is being carried out without any obstructions,? said Rehman.
Villagers are being paid Rs.20-50 as compensation for each fowl and duck depending on its age.
According to district officials, villagers were hiding their poultry to avoid culling. Some workers engaged in culling operations even alleged that they were manhandled by some villagers Thursday while collecting poultry.
?I have heard of the allegations and have asked the district magistrate and police superintendent to make necessary security arrangements for the workers,? Rehman said.
Rehman had confirmed Monday that two blood samples of dead poultry sent to the High Security Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Bhopal had tested positive for avian flu.
In January, over 200,000 poultry birds were culled when avian flu was detected in several districts. An outbreak of the bird flu had been detected at Malda in March and more than 50,000 birds were culled. This is the second time the disease hit the district.

http://www.sindhtoday.net/health/44299.htm
 
Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

Re: West Bengal - Poultry (December 2008 -)

India seals part of Bangladesh border over bird flu
18 Dec 2008 13:01:29 GMT
<!-- 18 Dec 2008 13:01:29 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove -->Source: Reuters

<!-- AN5.0 article title end --><SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="/bin/js/article.js"></SCRIPT></SPAN><INPUT id=CurrentSize type=hidden value=13 name=CurrentSize> <!-- India seals part of Bangladesh border over bird flu --><!-- Reuters -->(Recasts, adds quotes, details)
KOLKATA, India, Dec 18 (Reuters) - India sealed part of its border with Bangladesh on Thursday amid fears the latest outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus had spread to new areas, officials said.
Authorities in West Bengal state have killed about 10,000 birds in the Malda district which borders Bangladesh since Tuesday, despite resistance from villagers who want more compensation, after tests proved a new outbreak in the area.
"We have already sealed the border with Bangladesh along Malda district to check the spread of bird flu through chickens and ducks smuggled in from the other side," West Bengal's animal resource development minister Anisur Rahman told Reuters.
Hundreds of thousands of birds have also been culled in India's northeastern Assam state and neighbouring Meghalaya since an outbreak was detected there last month.
While there has been no recent outbreak in Bangladesh, India's impoverished neighbour suffered a severe bird flu epidemic starting in March 2007. Millions of birds were culled, costing the poultry industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
Malda authorities have sent more samples for testing after hundreds of chickens died in the past two days in a different area of the district, about 10 km (6 miles) away from the village regarded as the centre of the latest outbreak, officials said.
Authorities also increased the number of birds they plan to kill in West Bengal by 3,500 to 20,000 after discovering that there were more poultry farms in the area than first thought.
"We hope to complete the work by tomorrow," said N.K. ****, a senior animal resource development official in Malda.
Health workers are also monitoring about 100 villagers in and around Guwahati city in Assam who had shown signs of H5N1 but tests so far indicated none had the virus, health officials said. There have been no human cases of H5N1 confirmed in India.
Neighbouring states have also been taking precautions such as banning birds from affected states. Authorities in Orissa state to the south culled 2,000 chickens as a precautionary measure.
Smugglers had tried to sneak the birds across the border from West Bengal into Orissa in a passenger bus, officials said.
Monday's confirmation marked the third outbreak of the disease this year in West Bengal, where 4 million birds were culled in January in what the World Health Organisation (WHO) has described as India's worst-ever bird flu outbreak.
Experts fear the H5N1 virus might mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people across the world.
According to the WHO, H5N1 bird flu has infected 391 people in 15 countries and killed 247 of them since the virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003. (Additional reporting by Jatindra Dash; Editing by Matthias Williams and Dean Yates)

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