(IN): Bird flu: Culling drive to begin in Bengal

March 11, 2008

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Bird flu: Culling drive to begin in Bengal

Angshuman Deb Barman

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 (Kolkata)

Fifty thousand chickens will be culled in the next two days in West

Bengal's Murshidabad district, where bird flu has surfaced once again.

Around 5O Rapid Response teams have been deployed in Raghunathganj and

Jiagang blocks of Murshidabad district to cull the affected poultry.

Anisur Rahman, the state's Animal Resources Development minister says the

situation is under control and there is no need to panic.

Bhopal's Animal Disease Laboratory has confirmed the presence of the bird

flu virus in samples sent from these two blocks.

This fresh outbreak of Bird Flu in Murshidabad has raised questions about

the culling process carried out by the government in January when 40 lakh

birds were killed.

But Rahman minister feels the fresh outbreak is not the result of any lapse.

Rahman said, ''You know more than 40 lakh birds have been culled in the 16

districts but all preventive measures were taken there. Even ban was imposed

for import and marketing of the poultry, but despite of that it is the

nature of the virus. It is not at all unnatural, it is natural that it can

emerge in sporadic form in some area.''

Last time the epicentre of the bird flu epidemic was Birbhum district from

where the virus had spread rapidly across the state.

This time, the challenge before the state government is to ensure that the

virus is contained in the two blocks of Murshidabad district.

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