By IANS
New Delhi : Top officials of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the department of animal husbandry Monday rushed to West Bengal where the death of a large number of poultry has created a bird flu scare even as test results were awaited.
“We have sent two deputy directors, J. Khan and Ramesh Agarwal, to take stock of the situation in West Bengal. They will interact with field officers and prepare a report on the alleged outbreak of the disease,” NICD Director General Shiv Lal told IANS.
Death of poultry birds has been reported from parts of Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts over the past 10 days. Thousands of backyard poultry in the Birbhum region have died, prompting district authorities to sound an alert.
Two top officials of the department of animal husbandry, joint commissioner A.B. Negi and assistant commissioner Sujit Dutta, also reached the spot to assess the situation.
Poultry samples were sent to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL), Bhopal. Lal said the deaths cannot be termed a bird flu outbreak till the HSADL gives its report.
HSADL chief S.C. Dubey told IANS: “The testing is underway. It can normally take six days.”
As a precautionary measure, trade in poultry bird in Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts and movement of birds in an out of these districts has been restricted.
“On Tuesday, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss is holding a joint monitoring group meeting with the Department of Animal Husbandry,” Lal said.
Officials of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), NICD and Director General of Health Services (DGHS) will attend the meeting, a health ministry official said.
West Bengal officials said necessary logistics were being put in place to face an emergency situation if the Bhopal lab declared the deaths as bird flu.
“After a preliminary probe, it seems that the birds have died of bird flu, but we still don’t know whether it is the deadly H5N1 strain. That is being ascertained,” Birbhum chief medical officer Sunil Kumar Bhowmick had told IANS Sunday.
The Indian government had declared an outbreak of H5N1 strains of avian influenza in Chingmeirong village of east Imphal in July 2007. But the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared India “free from bird flu” after tens of thousands of poultry were culled in Manipur.