July 26, 2007
Bird flu revisits India after one-year hiatus
Bird flu has revisited India nearly a year after the country declared itself free of the disease.
India declared itself free of bird flu last August but confirmed an outbreak in the northeastern state of Manipur yesterday (Jul 24).
The government's department of animal husbandry said it had started to cull up to 150,000 chickens after 132 of 144 chickens at a small poultry farm died earlier this month.
"Rapid response teams" were sent to test 450,000 people for possible symptoms of bird flu within a ten-kilometre radius of the infected zone.
Charusheela Sohony, who heads the animal husbandry department, said the infected birds died within a six-day period from July 7.
Samples taken from the dead as well as the remaining stock are positive' for highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza, Sohony said.
She told reporters tests were being carried out to ascertain whether the chickens had the virulent
The culling has started in 128 poultry (farms) in a five-kilometre radius of the infected farm.
"The disease appears to be very localised and limited presently to one unit in the state,' she said.
India's state of Manipur borders Myanmar, which has reported two outbreaks of the H5N1 strain among its poultry flocks this year.
