Straits Times 22 Jan 08;
KOLKATA - VILLAGERS in eastern India are continuing to eat chickens killed by bird flu, prompting fears that the country's worst outbreak of the virus could spread.
West Bengal's Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahman yesterday described the situation in the affected areas as 'horrible', and said the authorities needed to accelerate a cull of hundreds of thousands of chickens and ducks.
'The ignorance of villagers is one of the main hurdles. They are carrying the dead chickens without any protective gear,' he said.
'Most villagers are not aware of the disease. They are eating the dead chickens. Their children are playing with the infected chickens in the courtyards. It's horrible.'
Six districts in West Bengal state have reported outbreaks of avian flu among poultry.
The minister said there were fears that the disease could be spreading further afield in the state. Suspect poultry have been spotted in the hill resort of Darjeeling on the border with Nepal, and in several villages in Coochbehar bordering Bangladesh, which is also fighting a bird flu outbreak.
'Blood samples of the dead poultry have been sent for tests. We are awaiting the report,' said Mr Rahman.
He also said the authorities had so far killed 200,000 birds and were planning to cull 500,000 more in the next three to four days.
The outbreak is the third in India since 2006 and the worst so far because it is more widespread, according to the World Health Organisation.
Officials are having trouble containing the outbreak because it has largely struck poultry living in tens of thousands of homes rather than at farms, said Mr Rahman.
'Here you have to deal with poultry birds in backyards. In many places, the villagers consider the poultry as part of their family and do not want to part with them,' he said.
Many villagers have refused to give up their chickens, claiming government compensation was inadequate.
The state government said yesterday that it was allotting extra funds to compensate villagers.
On Sunday, police arrested 12 farmers in Birbhum, one of the worst-affected areas, who attacked five officials after health workers slaughtered their chickens, said a local government official.
No human cases of infection have been reported in India so far.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
