Bird flu engulfs half of West Bengal
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Kolkata: Two more districts were added on Wednesday to the list of seven affected by the avian flu outbreak in West Bengal, bringing the tally close to half the total number of districts. There are 19 districts in the state.
The outbreak also spread further north with samples of dead poultry birds from Cooch Behar being declared positive after tests were conducted in the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal. “It has been confirmed that one block in each of the two districts has been affected by avian flu. Vigil has been stepped up in the capital city Kolkata as it is located close to Hooghly district.
A check is being made to prevent the movement of chickens and poultry products into the city from that district,” Anisur Rahaman, Minister for Animal Resources Development, told The Hindu. No humans have been afflicted, he added. The districts affected by the disease earlier are: Murshidabad, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Bankura, Burdwan, Nadia and Malda. Fresh areas in Nadia and Murshidabad districts have been hit. So far 34 blocks in the nine districts have been affected besides four municipality areas. Nearly 1.13 lakh chickens, mainly from backyard poultries, have died from the disease, Rahaman said. With the addition of two more districts to the total, the number of poultry birds to be culled, which had earlier been set at 21 lakhs, is now expected to rise. A target has been set to destroy 3 lakh birds every day. The Bihar government on Wednesday ordered culling of chickens in Katihar district, neighbouring West Bengal, and sent an SOS to the centre for assistance. Apart from prohibiting import of chickens from West Bengal and imposing a check at its borders, the state government, as a precautionary measure, directed the Katihar district administration to cull chickens in six panchayats bordering Malda district of West Bengal to check the spread of bird flu. The decision to take preventive measures in Khasota, Mimaua, Deogaon, Sitalpati, Garghatu and Anarsinghpur panchayats was taken after the state government learnt of a suspected case of bird flu in Mohammadpur panchayat of Malda district in West Bengal. Bird flu is now less than 80 km away from Kolkata. Ten days after bird flu was confirmed in Bengal, the third outbreak in the country since 2006, the disease seems to be spiraling out of control. On January 15, about 35,000 chicken deaths were reported from Birbhum and a poultry farm in Bolpur. In the next couple of days, as chicken began to be smuggled out of Birbhum, four more districts reported the disease. The centre has sent teams to eight states close to Bengal for surveillance in case the disease spreads beyond Bengal. “Disbursal of compensation to farmers is not satisfactory which is the main reason why there is resistance to culling, the state government told the centre very late about the bird flu. It erupted on Januray 4 and the state told centre on January 11,” said Sharad Pawar, union agriculture minister. The picture is a complete contrast to Navapur in Maharashtra, which saw the first outbreak in 2006, the state government quarantined the area within days and began rapid culling, quickly containing the disease. In Bengal, at least 800 culling teams are needed but only half the number is available. The centre now wants all poultry markets in the affected areas and Kolkata to be shut down and people to shun poultry products for the next ten days. Source: The Hindu and NDTV |
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