Assam, Bihar on alert; culling picks up
Tribune News Service & PTI

Kolkata/New Delhi/Guwahati, January 17
Culling of chickens in bird flu-hit areas of West Bengal intensified today as an alert was sounded in neighbouring Bihar and Assam.

Amid the alarm bells, the Centre asked the West Bengal government to take immediate corrective steps to stop the spread of the disease.

“We have asked the West Bengal government to take corrective action in every city and village,” agriculture minister Sharad Pawar told reporters in New Delhi. The minister claimed that there was no major impact on the market. The health ministry asked the state to adopt quarantine measures to prevent transport of people, animals and birds from the bird flu-hit areas of Birbhum and south Dinajpur.

The fallout was felt in neighbouring Bhutan which banned import of poultry and poultry products from India for an indefinite period. The ban came into effect yesterday.

“It’s right across the border and we won’t take any chances,” Bhutan’s chief veterinary officer Karma Tenzin said from Thimpu.

Meanwhile, culling of chickens continued for the second consecutive day in Birbhum and Dakshin Dinajpur districts. Around 35,000 to 40,000 chickens have died in Birbhum district alone.

An alert has been sounded in all neighbouring districts of Assam to prevent the spread of the disease.

Chicken items will not be served on airlines operating from Kolkata, airlines sources said in Kolkata. Chicken is being replaced with mutton.

Flight from Bangladesh?

“The (bird flu) germs were brought by winds blowing from Bangladesh,” assistant commissioner of the central animal husbandry department Sujit Dutta said in Balurghat, the headquarters of south Dinajpur. — PTI