By IANS
Kolkata : There were reports of fresh bird flu cases in West Bengal Friday as the culling operation proceeded at a sluggish pace at best and the WHO warned that the outbreak of the disease was the worst seen in the country.
Adding to the panic were reports of crows falling dead in Murshidabad district where the avian flu is said to have spread though confirmation is awaited.
Officials have sent dead poultry from a new area in the worst hit Birbhum district and adjoining villages in Murshidabad district to confirm if these had been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the flu virus.
The new areas are Khargram in Murshidabad and two blocks and Rampurhat municipality area of Birbhum.
The bird flu scare has also spread to South 24-Parganas district adjoining Kolkata besides other south Bengal districts like Hooghly, Nadia and Burdwan from where reports of poultry deaths are pouring in.
WHO issued a grim warning stating that this outbreak was far more serious than two previous ones witnessed in the country.
More than 30,000 chickens had been culled in West Bengal till Friday morning, officials said.
“The exact figure is not with me now but the culling figure has crossed 30,000 roughly,” West Bengal Animal Husbandry Minister Anisur Rahman told IANS, as Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation.
Central health ministry officials were also present at the meeting.
According to reports from districts, the culling operation was ham-handed with blood soaked gunny bags stuffed with dead chicken found in drains in Rampurhat area of Birbhum.
The birds had allegedly been left in the bags by the Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) carrying out the culling.
As the panic spread, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) officials toured the city’s markets and assured people that the chicken being sold was absolutely safe for consumption.
“We have found nothing negative. They are absolutely safe,” KMC chief medical officer Debdwaipayan Chatterjee said.
Culling had begun Wednesday morning for an estimated 378,000 chickens and ducks as the state’s poultry owners urged people not to panic but to treat chickens as complete untouchables.
Officials said in Birbhum, about 55 awareness teams were formed to inform people about bird flu and identify sick birds.
Control rooms have been set up in each block of the affected regions under the supervision of the Additional Chief Secretary of West Bengal Kalyan Bagchi and Animal Resource Development Director Dilip Das.
The border with Bangladesh has been sealed in the affected areas, especially in South Dinajpur, which shares a long border with the neighbouring country.
As the news about the deadly avian flu spread, the demand and prices for chickens nose-dived in Kolkata markets.
West Bengal Poultry Welfare Association assistant secretary Najrul Islam told IANS that poultry farm owners would hold a press conference with the animal resources development minister to dispel unfounded apprehensions about the virus.
“We are also taking care so that the infection does not spread any further. We are providing medication and trying to disinfect the poultry farms,” Islam said.
West Bengal is the fifth state in the country to have been struck by the H5N1 strain of bird flu since the first outbreak in Maharashtra in February 2006, and in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur.
In Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, about a million birds had to be culled in 2006 after the presence of the H5N1 virus was confirmed.
The virus causes a type of influenza in birds that is highly contagious and can be deadly. It does not usually infect people unless they come in close contact with infected birds or contaminated surfaces.
Avian influenza experts say speed in extinguishing the outbreak is crucial. The state government would need to prevent the movement of poultry out of the affected area, they stressed.