Monday, January 5, 2009

Culling continues in Siliguri after fresh outbreaks of bird flu

Siliguri, Mon, 05 Jan 2009 NI Wire

After confirmation of the fresh outbreaks of bird flu in Siliguri area of Darjeeling district, the administration has imposed ban in selling and farming of chickens & eggs in Siliguri subdivision and Rajganj block of Jalpaiguri districts.


The ban has been imposed within 10 kilometre range of Pubong village under Takdah block of Darjeeling sadar sub-division and Matigaraha under Siliguri sub-division of Darjeeling district, West Bengal, informed an official.


The samples of the infected birds had been sent to Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory to detect the presence of deadly H5N1 virus, which (lab) has reported positive.


After receiving the positive reports from Bhopal, the state government has ordered the local administration to begin the rapid culling operation from Sunday.


The operation is still going on and will take few more days to complete, till then government has sealed the border of the restricted areas where poultry ban has been imposed, informed local administration.


Binay Krishna Pally off Siliguri sub division has been fixed the major epicentre of bird flu outbreaks and government is closely watching the situation.


This the fourth time, when bird flu pandemic has hit the West Bengal state since 2007, while Ministry of Health from Centre has alleged the migratory birds for this repeated pandemic of bird flu outbreaks.


According to government website, as much as 455 Animal Health Workers have culled a total of 4,62,670 birds since November 2008 after confirming the fresh round of bird flu in West Bengal, Meghalaya and Assam states.


On the other hand, the neighbourhood states like Sikkim and Assam have reportedly imposed the ban on farming and selling of birds and eggs from the region.

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