By IANS
Kolkata/New Delhi : Bird flu in West Bengal has spread to new areas, tests confirmed Saturday even as efforts were on to contain the outbreak by culling poultry in the affected areas.
“The new areas are Burdwan and Nadia districts. The laboratory tests in Bhopal confirmed the spread of the disease to Mangalkot and Purbasthali in Burdwan and Tehatta in Nadia. It was also confirmed that the deaths in Murshidabad district’s Khargram and Baroa were also from the virus,” West Bengal Animal Resource Development Minister Anisur Rahman told IANS.
The two districts are in southern West Bengal and barely 200 km from Kolkata.
“We have to step up the culling operation further in view of the new reports of bird flu confirmation,” Rahman said.
The agriculture ministry said in a statement in New Delhi Saturday: “Samples from four blocks of Murshidabad district (Khargram, Burwan, Nowda and Nabagram), one block of Nadia district (Tehatta) and two blocks of Burdwan district (Mongalkote and Purbasthali) have been found positive for avian influenza by rapid tests. The state government has been notified.
“The samples from South 24 Parganas, Cooch Behar, Purulia and Hooghly districts have tested negative for avian influenza. Result of the samples sent from Bankura district is awaited from HSADL (High Security Animal Disease Laboratory), Bhopal,” it said.
The state had set a target of slaughtering 400,000 poultry birds but with the spread of the disease to new areas at least 200,000 more birds might have to be killed.
“We have been able to cull nearly 60,000 birds so far. The health and animal resource development workers are tirelessly engaged in killing the birds,” Rahman said.
The agriculture ministry said: “As per the latest information received, a total mortality of 96,010 poultry birds has been reported from Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, South 24 Parganas, Burdwan and Bankura districts of West Bengal. This number stood at 85,006 till yesterday (Friday).”
Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Health Panabaka Lakshmi said: “We are not satisfied (with the measures to combat bird flu in West Bengal).” Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in Kolkata, she did not specify where the state was lacking. She however alleged the compensation paid for the poultry losers was not properly distributed.
Alarmed by the outbreak of the disease, dubbed the worst in India by the World Health Organization (WHO), West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Friday said the state government would slaughter all poultry birds in areas reporting fresh cases of bird flu even before laboratories confirm the H5N1 strain.
“We have earmarked a sum of Rs.30 million as compensation for those losing their poultry birds,” Rahman said Saturday.
Farmers were being handed over tokens at culling sites and asked to contact their panchayat offices for the money. The payment is Rs.40 for a country chicken, Rs.30 for a broiler and Rs.10 for a chick.
While the minister said the culling operation had been stepped up, reports from the districts said the process was slow, often owing to villagers’ resistance to the Rapid Response Team (RRT) carrying out the cull.
But in some areas where a large number of poultry birds had died of the infection, the villagers were more eager to offer their chickens and ducks for culling.
“In the next seven days we will kill all the birds (an estimated 400,000) by increasing the number of health and animal resource development (ARD) workers,” the chief minister told reporters Friday.
“Wherever we will hear of new infections, we will kill birds. There are at the moment 60 teams comprising five workers each. We will increase the manpower,” he 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.