April 6, 2006

India reports 13 new cases of bird flu in Maharashtra state

Bird flu has sprung up in 13 new towns and villages in Western India, an official announced on Wednesday (Apr 5) after lab tests provided the confirmation.

Workers were on standby to slaughter some 300,000 more chickens in the state of Maharashtra but were awaiting more government funding, said state animal husbandry commissioner Bijay Kumar.

Some 400 people on Monday completed the slaughter of 225,000 birds within a 1,500 square-kilometre area after several confirmed cases of the H5N1 strain of the virus in one district.

The new cases were within the same area of the first outbreak in Jalgaon, but now 11 more villages and two towns have been hit, bringing the number of infected areas to 23.

The positive cases were from samples taken from about 100 villages in the area.

Maharashtra has been the centre of the country's bird flu outbreak first confirmed in February. Incomes of poultry farmers in the state, already badly affected before the onset of the new cases, are likely to hit new lows. Many poultry farms are expected to fold despite efforts to revive the industry.