India steps up bird flu cull, virus spreads

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-19  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

STATE authorities in east India stepped up poultry culling amid fears the latest outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus had spread to new areas, officials said yesterday.

Veterinary workers in protective suits have killed 9,373 birds in the Malda district of West Bengal state since Tuesday despite resistance from villagers who want more compensation.

Malda authorities have sent more samples for testing after hundreds of chickens died in the past two days about 10 kilometer away from the village regarded as the center of the latest outbreak, officials said.

Authorities also increased the number of birds they plan to kill in West Bengal by 3,500 to 20,000 after discovering that there were more poultry farms in the area than first thought.

"The start was slow but we have stepped up culling since Wednesday. We hope to complete the work by Friday," said NK Shit, a senior animal resource development official in Malda.

Hundreds of thousands of poultry are already being culled in the northeastern state of Assam and neighboring Meghalaya.

Health workers and medical experts are also monitoring about 100 villagers in and around Guwahati city in Assam who had shown signs of H5N1 but tests so far indicated none had the virus, health officials said. There have been no human cases of H5N1 confirmed in India.

Villagers and poultry farmers in Malda are being paid between 20 (US$0.5) and 50 rupees for each bird killed, depending on its age, but tempers flared when veterinary teams reached the affected areas without spot payments.

Villagers hid their stock to avoid culling, some even beating up veterinary workers, according to media reports.

"The villagers continue to resist the cull, demanding double the prices for grown-up chickens," senior West Bengal government official Sridhar Ghosh said.

The outbreak in West Bengal was confirmed late on Monday after tests on dead birds, a major blow to the poultry industry.

Neighboring states have banned birds from affected states. Authorities in Orissa state to the south culled 2,000 chickens as a precautionary measure.