NEW DELHI/DHAKA, 18 January 2008 — Villagers at the center of a bird flu outbreak in Kolkata refused to hand over their chickens and ducks for culling as India and neighboring Bangladesh struggled to contain the spread of the virus.
In Bangladesh, the culling of thousands of fowl went on smoothly after the virus was detected in three more districts.
In both countries the virus seemed to be spreading with fresh bird deaths reported from new areas. Neither country has reported any human infection.
Veterinary workers coaxed villagers at the center of an outbreak in India’s West Bengal state to hand over their poultry and observe hygiene practices needed to limit the spread of what the World Health Organization says is the worst bird flu outbreak in India.
The latest outbreak in West Bengal has affected three districts, but officials said the infection could be more widespread as they waited for test results of more birds. In the quarantined West Bengal village of Margram, villagers told a Reuters photographer their birds were not infected and that they were unhappy with a dollar-a-bird compensation.
Many let loose their ducks and chickens so that veterinary workers found it difficult to catch and kill them.
“We have asked our officers to resolve all disputes and speed up culling,” said Sanchita Bakshi, a West Bengal health official, said.
West Bengal had said yesterday it could take up to a week to cull 400,000 birds. Only a few thousand had been killed a day later.
To prevent and contain the spread of the deadly virus, the center asked the state government to take corrective measures. “We have asked the West Bengal government to take action in every city and village,” Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said in New Delhi. The disease did not have a major effect on India’s domestic and overseas poultry market, he said.
“So far, we have not received any advisory from the World Organization for Animal Health for export ban on our poultry products,” Pawar said.
Asserting that the disease would be contained by authorities, Pawar said there has not been any report of humans getting infected by bird flu.
The center has also sounded an alert in states bordering Bangladesh and the Border Security Force has been asked to check movement of livestock to contain the spread of the virus.
Traders and shopkeepers, who suffered losses earlier when the bird flu hit the capital, are helping the government in taking measures to prevent the virus from reaching Delhi. Five veterinary experts have been assigned to certify that chickens being sold were healthy.
Neighboring Bangladesh culled nearly 25,000 fowls after bird flu spread to three districts of Borguna, Rajshahi and Jessore, a Livestock Ministry official said.
Fowls were also culled in the southern coastal district of Barisal as the virus spread to 25 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts since the detection of H5N1 strain in March last year. Suspected outbreaks were reported at a farm in northern Rangpur district, where the virus has resurfaced.
The latest outbreak of the H5N1 strain in West Bengal’s poultry, the fourth in India since 2006, has killed more than 35,000 chickens and birds.
