India: Bird flu effect: Over five million birds culled in one year

12/22/08 Zee News--Over five million birds have been culled in five states over the last one year to contain the spread of avian flu, with West Bengal accounting for 83 percent of the birds killed, Parliament was informed on Monday.

The number of birds killed since December 18, 2007 touched 5.14 million while compensation provided to the people affected by the killing of these birds stood at Rs 14.85 crore, Minister of State for Agriculture Taslimuddin said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Out of the five states that witnessed the spread of the avian flu, West Bengal accounted for the maximum number of bird culling (4.27 million) followed by Assam (0.46 million), Bihar (0.21 million), Tripura (0.19 million) and Jharkhand (0.01 million), the minister said.

Similarly, people in West Bengal, who were affected by the birds culled, were provided the highest compensation of Rs 12.32 crore. Those in Assam received a package of Rs 1.39 crore, Tripura Rs 0.71 crore and Jharkhand Rs 56,000, Taslimuddin said.

Incidentally, Bihar received less amount of assistance at Rs 43 lakh for more number of birds killed (0.21 million) than Tripura, which was sanctioned Rs 71 lakh for 0.19 million birds culled, the House was informed.

The minister pointed out that Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease laboratory, National Institute of Virology in Pune and Eastern Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Kolkata are engaged in research into the aspects of bird flu.

"The World Bank-funded project on Preparedness, Control and Containment of Avian Influenza provided for an amount of Rs 22 lakh for epidemiological survey," he said.

Culling ends in Malda district

The West Bengal government on Monday said that culling was completed in birdflu-affected Malda district, where it reappeared for the second time, with over 20,000 birds eliminated.

Altogether 27,633 chicken were culled and a compensation of Rs 9.26 lakh was paid to affected poultry farmers, Animal Resources Development Secretary Dilip Chakraborty said here.

This year, no other place than Englishbazar area in Malda district was affected by the H5N1 virus, he said.

He said the Centre and state government should compensate the department Rs 5 crore each for the loss.

http://aidailydigest.blogspot.com/#id_36075