India culls birds, hunts for flu in humans
Reuters
By Krittivas Mukherjee
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Veterinary workers began throttling more than 70,000 birds in western India on Thursday, stepping up efforts to contain a second outbreak of avian influenza in poultry.
"There is no time for niceties. The birds have to be killed as fast as possible," said Bijay Kumar, animal husbandry commissioner of the state of Maharashtra, where bird flu resurfaced this week in backyard poultry.
Veterinary and civic workers wearing protective gear moved door-to-door collecting chickens and eggs after paying owners 40 rupees (0.5 pounds) for every bird as compensation. Eggs went free.
The birds had their necks twisted and were then stuffed in black plastic bags and buried in shallow pits. Disinfectants and lime powder were then sprinkled over the graves.
"We hope the culling will be over by tomorrow," Kumar said.
Officials said they were checking if the latest outbreak -- which occurred in backyard poultry in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra -- was the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed about 100 people, most of them in Asia.
Health authorities said they were not taking any chances and had sent dozens of medical teams looking for people with flu-like symptoms to every household of the affected area.
Hundreds of people in a nearby area have complained of fever. Doctors say they are most likely suffering from dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease -- but they have sent blood samples for bird flu tests anyway.
Hospitals in Malegaon, 140 km from the latest outbreak, have treated nearly 2,000 people in 15 days.
Authorities said they had identified four villages spread over 1,100 square km in the Jalgaon area as affected and were killing all birds -- an estimated 70,000 -- within that area.
Jalgaon is 200 km from Navapur, where India reported its first case of the H5N1 strain last month. Authorities said last week they had contained the virus there after culling hundreds of thousands of chickens. Continued ...
By Krittivas Mukherjee
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Veterinary workers began throttling more than 70,000 birds in western India on Thursday, stepping up efforts to contain a second outbreak of avian influenza in poultry.
"There is no time for niceties. The birds have to be killed as fast as possible," said Bijay Kumar, animal husbandry commissioner of the state of Maharashtra, where bird flu resurfaced this week in backyard poultry.
Veterinary and civic workers wearing protective gear moved door-to-door collecting chickens and eggs after paying owners 40 rupees (0.5 pounds) for every bird as compensation. Eggs went free.
The birds had their necks twisted and were then stuffed in black plastic bags and buried in shallow pits. Disinfectants and lime powder were then sprinkled over the graves.
"We hope the culling will be over by tomorrow," Kumar said.
Officials said they were checking if the latest outbreak -- which occurred in backyard poultry in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra -- was the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed about 100 people, most of them in Asia.
Health authorities said they were not taking any chances and had sent dozens of medical teams looking for people with flu-like symptoms to every household of the affected area.
Hundreds of people in a nearby area have complained of fever. Doctors say they are most likely suffering from dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease -- but they have sent blood samples for bird flu tests anyway.
Hospitals in Malegaon, 140 km from the latest outbreak, have treated nearly 2,000 people in 15 days.
Authorities said they had identified four villages spread over 1,100 square km in the Jalgaon area as affected and were killing all birds -- an estimated 70,000 -- within that area.
Jalgaon is 200 km from Navapur, where India reported its first case of the H5N1 strain last month. Authorities said last week they had contained the virus there after culling hundreds of thousands of chickens. Continued ...
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