The worst fears of poultry farmers have come true. The West Bengal government has confirmed the outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza or bird flu in Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts. It appears that the flu might have spread to a third district. Culling of poultry has begun and in the next few days around 400,000 chickens in Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts will be killed. This is the third outbreak of bird flu in the country over the last two years.

In 2006, there was a severe outbreak of bird flu in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra. A year later, the disease struck Chingmeirong village in Manipur, albeit on a smaller scale. It does seem that no lessons have been learnt from the previous outbreaks of the disease. There were warning signals over the past fortnight. There were reports of poultry dying in large numbers in some villages but health authorities failed to heed the warning. It was only four days ago that the government woke up to the looming crisis. It has swung into action rather late.

It has now rushed 60 rapid response teams to the epicentre of the crisis. The Centre is now sealing Bengal’s borders with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Much time has been lost in combating the spread of the disease.

Vaccination of poultry should be initiated immediately as it takes around two months for immunity to develop.

People in the affected and surrounding areas are said to be panic-stricken. Many fear they have been infected too. In districts not yet affected by the flu too people are culling their poultry in panic. This is inevitable when proper information is not provided. People are unsure of what precautions they need to take. In some villages, people have been seen killing chicken with their bare hands. Health authorities have to step in immediately to provide accurate information.

The Indian poultry industry suffered losses to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore during the 2006 outbreak of bird flu.

While the brunt of those losses was borne by big business, it was the small poultry farmers that faced the worst devastation. This time too tens of thousands of families that depend on poultry farming will be seriously affected by the culling. The government has promised compensation to them but simply handing out money is not enough.
Many of the affected are small farmers and they have been impoverished almost overnight. They need help for building their livelihood from the scratch.