March 15, 2006

 

India to cull chickens after 4 test positive for bird flu

 

 

Authorities on Wednesday prepared to cull tens of thousands of chickens in western India after four birds tested positive for the H5 bird flu virus, an official said.

 

Tests were still being conducted to determine whether the infected chickens had the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

 

However, officials were nonetheless planning to press on with the slaughter of about 75,000 chickens in four villages where the outbreak was first spotted in mid-February, said Upma Chowdhary, joint secretary in the federal animal husbandry department.

 

Of 6,600 birds tested in the Jalgaon area of Maharashtra state, which is dotted with backyard poultry farms, four were found to have the H5 virus. The tests were conducted at a federal laboratory in the central city of Bhopal.

 

India reported its first H5N1 bird flu outbreak last month, in a different area of Maharashtra state. Authorities culled more than 200,000 birds after the disease was detected among chickens in Navapur town in Maharashtra and adjoining Ucchal town in Gujarat state.

 

It is not clear whether the two outbreaks were related. Chowdhary said it should be clear in the coming days if the latest outbreak is H5N1.

 

She said control and prevention work would be carried out in a 10 kilometre (six mile) radius around the affected villages, and that nearly 250 workers would kill the birds and clear away their droppings and other potentially harmful waste.

 

The earlier outbreak of H5N1 was on poultry farms. Chowdhary said the cull would take about seven to eight days to complete because the latest outbreak is largely among the more spread-out backyard poultry.

 

"But of course we do not have the massive work of cleanup and disinfection which happens on poultry farms," she said.

 

India has not reported any human infections of the virus.

 

The outbreak has led to a nationwide plunge in demand for chicken, eggs and other poultry products, Indian news reports say, although experts say bird flu cannot be contracted from eating properly cooked food.

 

Producers have been forced to lay off thousands of workers, threatening India's fast-growing US$13.6 billion poultry industry.