“We have mounted strict surveillance in the markets in and around the city (Kolkata) as the germ of the virus has apparently been spreading through individual sources,” state animal husbandry resources minister Anisur Rahman said at the state secretariat.
After the virus was confirmed dead, bird samples from Balagarh in Hoogly district, on Wednesday, officials from Kolkata Municipal Corporation conducted surprise visits around the city, in search of sick birds that might have found their way into the city.
“Besides the vigil, we’ve also requested the police to check every truck coming into the city to contain smuggled entry of sick chickens,” Rahman pointed out.
In fact, the police on Wednesday intercepted a truck carrying more than 10,000 chicks at Suri in Birbhum district, the epicentre of the bird flu outbreak in the country.
“More culling teams are needed in all the affected districts; but these are things that cannot be hurried. The men in the culling teams have to be quarantined first before starting the operations,” he said.
The H5N1 virus has officially spread to nine out of 19 districts and reports of fowl deaths from adjoining five districts in the state of 80 million people have forced the authorities to issue a high alert notice.
To make the task difficult for health workers being assisted by around 600 Rapid Response Teams, un-seasonal rains since Wednesday has severely affected the pace of culling in Bankura, Birbhum, Coochbehar, Hooghly, Nadia, South Dinazpur, Burdwan and Murshibadbad districts.
Meanwhile, a human scare has been reported from Naxalbari in North Bengal as a poultry worker engaged in culling without proper gear, has been admitted to a hospital with fever, cough and sneeze. He has been quarantined in a ward, reports said.
False alarm in TN
The death of 17 chickens in a hamlet in Namakkal district over seven days caused panic among backyard poultry farmers about a bird flu outbreak, prompting authorities to undertake vaccination.
Dismissing reports about a possible bird flu outbreak, Joint Director of Animal Husbandry, Sivanathan said that samples of two dead birds, sent to the local disease control laboratory, confirmed that they had died of Ranikhet disease “which is controllable”.
Ranikhet disease is an influenza-like viral disease of birds, characterised by respiratory and gastro-intestinal or pneumonic and encephalitic symptoms.
First seen near New Castle, England, the infection can spread to humans who are in contact with infected birds.
EARLY SIGNS POSSIBLY MISSED
New Delhi, DHNS: The early signs of bird flu outbreak, may have escaped scientific detection due to wrong samples sent for testing since last six months.
Since last July when the disease struck a Manipur village, samples were regularly being sent from West Bengal to Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory for detection. However, all were tested negative till January. The officials doubt samples from those villages, where chickens died under suspicions conditions, had never actually been sent to the laboratory.
“The sampling schedule was not accurate. It was not prepared by an expert and did not follow the international epidemiology practices,” Animal Husbandry commissioner Dr S K Bandopadhaya said.
