Date:21/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/21/stories/2008032162091400.htm

National

Bird flu in W. Bengal’s Malda district

Marcus Dam

KOLKATA: Culling operations began on Thursday in and around a State poultry farm in West Bengal’s Malda district. Over 800 chickens have died over the past few days in a fresh outbreak of avian flu in the district.

This is the second avian flu attack in the State this month. Earlier, over 300 poultry birds had died in two blocks of the adjoining Murshidabad district.

Culling target

Samples from the dead birds that were sent to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal in the aftermath of the poultry deaths in the farm in Malda’s English Bazar Block have tested positive for avian flu. The district authorities were informed about this on Wednesday.

Poultry birds within a radius of three km from the farm would be destroyed in culling operations that would continue for three days, an official in the district’s animal resources development department said.

The target set for culling is nearly 44,000. Sale of poultry products in the affected Block has been prohibited.

Areas falling within a radius of 10 km from the farm would be under surveillance, he added.

Culling operations, involving nearly 50,000 poultry birds, are almost complete in Murshidabad district areas that have been affected by avian flu.Both Malda and Murshidabad districts were among those hit by avian flu that affected most of the districts in the State in January-February.