MARGRAM, 24 January 2008 — India’s West Bengal state said yesterday it was falling behind in its attempts to halt the spread of bird flu among poultry as the virus was confirmed in two new areas.
Despite receiving reinforcements from neighboring states to help slaughter more than two million birds, at least 1,000 additional veterinarians and doctors are needed to fight the outbreak that began more than a week ago, the state’s animal resources minister said.
“We don’t have the infrastructure to battle this epidemic. Bird flu is spreading to new areas. Thousands of chickens are dropping dead every day,” the minister, Anisur Rahman, told AFP.
Rahman said hundreds more culling teams had been sent to 10 districts where bird flu had been confirmed, but not all of them were accompanied by medical staff.
“We have asked neighboring states to send at least 1,000 veterinary and human doctors,” said Rahman. “We have urged the federal government to send expert teams and doctors to assess the situation and help the culling teams.” Rahman also said the earlier target of slaughtering two million birds would now have to be raised but did not say by how much.
“Bird flu has spread to two more districts in West Bengal. It has been confirmed by telephone,” said Rahman. “We have to kill more poultry. The target will be more than two million.”
Rahman, however, expressed grave concerns about the possibility of the disease spreading to humans, with hundreds of people reporting flu symptoms although tests conducted so far have proved negative.
“Naked children are playing with chickens in courtyards in the affected villages,” he said.
“Chickens are roaming in the kitchen while women are cooking. It is a very worrisome situation.”
An AFP correspondent in the bird flu zone said proper isolation procedures were not being followed, as villagers without protective gear milled about health workers carrying out the culling.
The culling teams have been facing an uphill battle with villagers smuggling birds out of affected areas and selling them in markets.
“Most of my chickens have been culled,” said Jayanta Bhattacharya, a poultry owner in Rampurhat town near Margram, whose farm here had 30,000 chickens.
“I have already suffered a loss of 400,000 rupees ($10,000).” Sri Lanka yesterday banned imports of live birds and chickens from India, G. Wijesiri, a senior official with the country’s animal health department, told AFP.
The West Bengal state government, meanwhile, asked thousands of its cadres to help veterinary staff cull birds.
“Our workers have been asked to fight the menace, shoulder to shoulder with health workers,” said Biman Bose, a senior communist party official. Government says laboratory tests have confirmed the H5N1 flu virus strain in at least two of West Bengal’s 19 districts.
Some form of bird flu has been found in another seven districts. Santanu Bandyopadhyay, India’s animal husbandry commissioner, said he would be “surprised” if final laboratory tests showed anything other than the H5N1 strain.
There have been no human infections reported yet in India. The H5N1 strain has killed more than 200 people globally since it re-emerged in Asia in 2003.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the spread of the disease in eastern India was making it harder to control and increased the risk of human infection. About 24 million people live in the seven affected districts.
“However, such spread is not insurmountable,” Dr. S.J. Habayeb, the WHO’s India representative, said in an e-mail to Reuters yesterday.
The WHO has called this India’s most serious outbreak. Central health agencies have also given West Bengal a new target of slaughtering 300,000 birds a day and doubling the rapid-response team of veterinarians to 600 in the state.
“The spread of disease would have been contained had the state government informed the government of India earlier,” said Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.
“Bird flu has reached India from Bangladesh and we had asked the West Bengal government to be careful ... We also came to know that late compensation by the government to poultry owners is also delaying culling operations.”
In Bangladesh, the virus has spread to 26 of its 64 districts. The country has struggled to contain the H5N1 outbreak since March.
Hundreds of party workers tried to convince villagers yesterday to hand over poultry for culling in remote areas.
Several cadres wrapped plastic packets around their arms and helped catch chickens from backyards and stopped villagers from dumping dead birds in ponds.
“Help from all quarters is welcome at this stage,” said Peeyush Pandey, a senior police official. Authorities are now testing dead bird samples from areas near Kolkata.
