By IANS
Kolkata : Poultry markets in Kolkata were put under surveillance Saturday as a raging bird flu that has spread to more than half of West Bengal reached the doorsteps of the state capital, officials said.
A health worker involved in culling the birds has meanwhile been taken ill and put under observation.
“We are visiting the Kolkata markets and maintaining regular liaison with the concerned departments,” Deb Dwaipayan Chattopadhayay, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) chief medical officer, told IANS.
On Friday, the authorities confirmed the disease had reached Sankrail in Howrah, barely 10 km from here.
Avian flu has spread to 11 districts of West Bengal – Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Burdwan, Bankura, Malda, Hooghly, Cooch Behar, Purulia and Howrah since breaking out Jan 15.
West Bengal Animal Resource Development secretary Dilip Chakraborty admitted that Kolkata was feeling the threat after poultry samples from Sankrail tested positive.
While no human infection has been confirmed, West Bengal health official R.S. Shukla told IANS that a health worker in South Dinajpur’s Balurghat (about 400 km from here) who fell ill during the culling was under observation.
“We have sent his samples to the National Institute of Communicable Disease in New Delhi and the National Institute of Virology, Pune, for tests,” Shukla said.
Earlier, all human samples sent to the two laboratories had tested negative, bringing relief to the state and union government.
Shukla said everyone was being urged to refrain from handling poultry and to wash their hands if they come in contact with poultry.
The state’s poultry industry says it has lost over Rs.1 billion ($25 million) ever since the bird flu broke out Jan 15.
On Friday, authorities said they had met nearly half the culling target by killing over one million poultry in the past 10 days. The state has targeted to slaughter at least 2.1 million birds.
The outbreak was first reported in Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts. With the virus reaching Howrah, Animal Husbandry Minister Anisur Rahman said: “This is worrying indeed but there is no need to panic in Kolkata.
“All the infections in Howrah are among backyard poultry, but the areas are not too large. There are an estimated 700 million poultry birds in West Bengal. Less than five percent of that is being culled,” Rahman told IANS.
A rehabilitation package was being worked out for the affected poultry farmers.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described the situation in West Bengal as “serious”.
The H5N1 virus causes a type of influenza in birds that is highly contagious. It does not usually infect people unless they come in close contact with infected birds or contaminated surfaces.