Friday, January 2, 2009

Siliguri: Chicken deaths trigger flu panic

Saturday , January 3 , 2009

Siliguri, Jan. 2: The Siliguri subdivisional administration has formed teams to search for dead chickens after 50 poultry birds were reported dead in Matigara over the past one week.

However, it is yet to be confirmed if the poultry had died of bird flu, said Sarad Dwibedi, the subdivisional officer of Siliguri.

“We have received a report through the animal resource development department that 50 poultry birds died at Patiramjote in Matigara Gram Panchayat-II over the past one week. The ARD officials had been to the spot and collected the samples from there. We have sent the samples to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal two days ago to confirm if the birds died of avian flu,” said Dwibedi.

Patiramjote is located 8km away from Siliguri.

The SDO said 16 teams have been formed to check the farms in the subdivision from tomorrow. “We will set up a check-point at Murligach at Bidhannagar, 45km from here,” he added.

Dwibedi today held a meeting with the ARD department and the Siliguri Municipal Corporation officials to alert the departments concerned.

“We are expecting the report from the Bhopal laboratory any time,” the SDO said.

The SMC officials will keep a watch over the local poultry markets to check if there was any unnatural death in its area.

“We have not received any reports of abnormal death of poultry birds from the civic area. But after today’s meeting we will keep a vigil on the market to check it further,” said an official of the conservancy department of the SMC.

The Siliguri markets located at Bidhan Market, Champasari More, Subhashpally and Fuleswari remain largely unaffected by the Matigara incident so far.

The administration has not issued any notice to curb the selling of poultry and its products. “As the detection of avian flu is yet to be confirmed, we are not going to issue any directive immediately,” Dwibedi said.

In Malda, mop-up operations in the bird flu affected areas of Narhatta Gram Panchayat would continue for the next three months.

More than 20,000 birds had been culled in Narhatta following the outbreak of bird flu in the area.

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