By IANS
New Delhi/Kolkata : India Tuesday confirmed an outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal and asked the state to seal its borders with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal as it mounted efforts on war footing to contain the spread of the disease.
“The Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) has confirmed the outbreak, and we have sent 60 rapid response teams to the state for the initial ground work,” said Pradip Kumar, secretary of the animal husbandry department in the union ministry of agriculture.
Kumar told reporters that the disease was “confined to only two districts”, Birbhum and South Dinajpur, and mostly to backyard poultry.
After a joint monitoring meeting of the agriculture ministry and the health ministry, authorities said West Bengal was also “advised to seal the border with neighbouring countries”.
“It has also been advised to seal the affected areas so that there is no movement of animals across these borders. The disease has been confined to only two districts of Birbhum and Dakshin Dinajpur,” said an agriculture ministry statement.
According to the ministry, West Bengal reported the death of approximately 35,525 poultry birds in 102 villages of six blocks of Birbhum district and 288 poultry in a farm in South Dinajpur district last week.
Kumar added: “Fresh deaths of poultry have not been reported in West Bengal. No human infections have been reported so far.”
Health Secretary Naresh Dayal said human health surveillance will start soon.
Kumar did not agree with a suggestion the deadly H5N1 virus had come from Myanmar and Bangladesh. “No, I cannot say that.”
He added that adequate manpower and medicines were made available to the state government. “We have given required directions and it’s up to the state government when they start the culling operation.
“A detailed plan has been prepared for the culling operation. Funds are also available for (compensation to) the affected farmers,” Kumar said.
Dayal said: “An adequate number of protective masks has been given to West Bengal. In case the state needs more masks, these will be air-lifted.
“So far 36,000 Tamiflu tablets have been despatched to West Bengal. We are in touch with the state government and they have drawn a contingency plan as envisaged by us,” Dayal added.
In Kolkata, West Bengal Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahman said: “We will start culling Wednesday. We just got the confirmation but the machinery of the state health department was already in action.
“Two blocks of Birbhum district – Rampurhat I and II – are affected. In South Dinajpur bird flu was found in Balurghat area.
“We will take all measures but we are urging the people not to panic unnecessarily,” he said.
Reports of poultry bird deaths also poured in from adjoining Murshidabad district. A door-to-door inspection of people with suspected symptoms of avian influenza began in Margram village Tuesday.
“We are sending our workers door to door in the affected region to find out if anyone was having fever above 98 degrees or having breathing trouble or was afflicted with pneumonia. After a survey and monitoring we would be able to say if there are any cases among humans (of infection),” Birbhum chief medical officer Sunil Kumar Bhowmick said.
“We will keep an eye on people who were in direct contact with the infected birds,” he assured.
“All chickens within a five-kilometre radius of the affected area will have to be killed. The government will compensate the owners,” Birbhum District Magistrate Tapan Kumar Som said.
The H5N1 virus causes a type of influenza in birds that is highly contagious among them. It usually does not infect people unless they come in close contact with infected birds or contaminated surfaces.
This is not the first time bird flu has broken out in India. In 2006, the spread of the H5N1 virus was confirmed in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra.
Chingmeirong village of near Manipur’s state capital Imphal had witnessed the bird flu outbreak in July 2007.
After the culling of a large number of birds and other preventive measures in both cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had last year declared India “free from bird flu”.