Via The Times of India: Bird flu strikes again, culling begins. Excerpt:
Nadia/KOLKATA: Bird flu has struck Bengal yet again and culling of poultry birds started across 13 villages of Nadia's Tehatta I block on Tuesday.
State animal resources development minister Nure Alam Chowdhury went on a recce of the affected Tehatta I block on Tuesday.
"Around 51,000 hens and ducks will be culled within a 3-km radius of the affected zone," said A K Agarwal, secretary of the ARD department, at Writers' Buildings on Tuesday. Besides culling, surveillance will continue within a 10-km radius of the affected area.
On September 14, unnatural deaths of 849 fowls on a single day were reported to the local animal resources development wing. The next day, samples were sent for test to the Belgachhia laboratory, where it was confirmed to be bird flu.
To re-confirm the tests, samples were sent again to Bhopal's High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) where it tested positive for the H5 strain of avian influenza. On Monday, both the Centre and the state issued notifications, declaring the epidemic as bird flu and culling was ordered.
Culling started across the five affected panchayat areas only after 4 pm on Tuesday. According to The ARD secretary informed that the 3-km radius within which culling has to be done includes a portion of Bangladesh. So, The Centre was requested to talk it out with Bangladesh, take up the issue with the neighbouring country so that a similar exercise is conducted over this area as well.
Twenty teams have been deployed for culling across the five affected panchayat areas.The hens and ducks are being buried in Lalbazar, a desolate area near the Bangladesh border. The border is being monitored to prevent the disease spreading, the minister said.
In the first B2B outbreaks in West Bengal back in late 2007/early 2008, I fell in love with the Indian media coverage—the lack of any pretense of objectivity, the fun with English expressions, and the predictable shots at the Bangladeshis as the source of all bird flu. (The Bangladeshis cordially return the accusation.) Not much has changed.
For the benefit of newbies to this kind of journalism, "recce" is old British slang for "reconnaissance" or survey. Writers' Buildings are the West Bengal state government. A panchayat is a village council; a block is an administrative region. The Centre is the national government in New Delhi.
If this outbreak persists, we may soon hear about "checknakas," checkpoints where farmers transporting poultry will be stopped for inspection. And we will assuredly hear from the farmers that they are not being paid adequate compensation for their culled birds.
This explanation provided by your friendly online birdfluwallah.
