New Delhi: The Health Ministry has confirmed bird flu in two districts of West Bengal. Five blocks and the municipality area of Birbhum and one municipality area in South Dinajpur are affected, reports say.
Speaking to CNN-IBN, State Health Secretary Naresh Dayal said, "Two samples have been tested positive for H5N1 strain of Avian Flu. We have alerted West Bengal to seal the borders of these districts. That has been done immediately."
The movement of poultry from the affected areas has also been fully curtailed.
Dayal confirmed that culling operations are all set to begin shortly with 60 teams ready in Birbhum to execute the action plan.
"There would be no difficulty in implementation of the plan," said Dayal, adding that the state government has already been given a contingency plan by the Centre.
One Union Health Team has already been sent to the affected places.
"Union teams will ensure human safety," promised Dayal.
Three and a half lakh chickens have to be culled in Birbhum and about 26,000 in Balurghat State Poultry, in South Dinajpur.
The state will provide compensation at a rate of Rs 40 per egg-laying adult chicken, Rs 30 for others used for meat and Rs 10 for per chick.
A compensation of Rs 1 crore has been sanctioned for Birbhum and Rs 25 lakhs for Dinajpur, said the Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Aneesur Rehman.
On Tuesday, preliminary tests on samples of dead birds from Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts of West Bengal had confirmed bird flu.
As a precautionary measure, trade in poultry in Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts had already been restricted. There's an alert in the entire state and villages in these districts have been quarantined.
Close to 10,000 chickens died in the last 10 days at Margram in Birbhum. Reports say that over 15,000 birds have perished since December 29 but apparently, the government took few measures at the time.
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