February 4, 2008

India continues culling of poultry
 

The Indian Express reported on Friday (February 1, 2008) that the government is planning to cull poultry in states neighbouring West Bengal after the government's announcement on Thursday (January 31, 2008) that around 2.8 million poultry would be culled.

Border areas that are within a five-kilometre radius of West Bengal could have its poultry culled. That is despite the fact that there were no bird flu outbreaks in these regions, and officials said they would compensate the poultry owners in the identified areas.

India has culled about 2.5 million birds in West Bengal since the confirmation of H5N1 bird flu in mid-January. There was a deadline for the culling but the authorities have since extended it after a new bird flu outbreak was reported in a village in West Bengal state.

West Bengal animal resources development minister Anisur Rahaman told AFP that the disease would be contained by Monday, and the culling teams are working hard to meet the deadline.

State health minister Surya Kanata Mishra said nearly 800 culling team members are quarantined in different hospitals and that 5,000 workers would be isolated after the culling exercise is over.

Surya said the workers were administered with Tamiflu as a precautionary measure against the bird flu virus as recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Culling operations have also started in neighbouring northeastern state, Assam.

Assam state officials said an estimated 85,000 poultry were due to be culled in the next 10 days in 40 villages close to the West Bengal border.