By IANS
Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Friday said the state government would slaughter all poultry birds in areas reporting fresh cases of avian flu even before laboratories confirm the H5N1 strain, after the World Health Organization (WHO) said the current outbreak was the most serious in the country yet.
“So far we have been able to kill 40,000 birds. In the next seven days we will kill all birds (an estimated 400,000) by increasing the number of health and animal resource development (ARD) workers,” Bhattacharya told reporters here.
“Our worst affected areas are Rampurhat subdivision in Birbhum district and Balurghat in South Dinajpur, where deaths occurred in government farms.
“But there are reports from Khargram and Baroa in Murshidabad besides Nadia and Burdwan. So we have decided to kill all birds in the new areas even before confirmation from the laboratories,” Bhattacharya said.
“Wherever we will hear of new infections, we will kill birds. There are at the moment sixty teams comprising five workers each. We will increase the manpower,” he said at state secretariat Writers’ Building.
There were reports of fresh bird flu cases in West Bengal Friday as the culling operation proceeded at a sluggish pace at best and WHO warned the outbreak 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 feared to have spread.
Three days after bird flu was confirmed in the state, the chief minister held an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the situation. Central health ministry officials were also present at the meeting.
Meanwhile, 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.
Members of the Rapid Response Teams carrying out the culling had allegedly left the bags behind.
As panic about the bird flu 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.
The H5N1 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.