What is worse and alarming is that the virus has been spreading to new areas within the already afflicted districts, thanks to ignorance of poultry farmers and a typical “lethargy and resistance” among a section of villagers in the efforts of veterinary workers to cull the birds in the villages, officials said. 

Even as nearly 50,000 birds have so far been culled since Wednesday in Bengal to help combat bird flu, the Centre went public on Saturday about its unhappiness over the lack of measures on the part of State Government to contain the spread of the virus.

“We are not satisfied,” Minister of State for Health Panabaka Lakshmi told newsmen on being asked if the Centre was satisfied with the measures taken.

SAMPLES TEST POSITIVE
New Delhi, DHNS: Samples from four blocks of Murshidabad (Khargram, Burwan, Nowda and Nabagram), one block of Nadia (Tehatta) and two blocks of Burdwan district (Mongalkote and Purbasthali) have been found positive for avian influenza, official sources said.

During the two previous outbreaks in Maharashtra-Gujarat-Madhya Pradesh and Manipur, more than two districts from one particular state were never affected by the disease. In February, 2006, the first outbreak occurred in Navapur in Maharashtra and Uchchhal district in Gujarat which are in close proximity.

In mid-March, a second outbreak was reported about 140 km east of Navapur in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra and a third outbreak was reported in late March around Ichhapur on the Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border.