Thursday, January 21, 2010

Bird flu strikes once more, villagers oppose culling

As bird flu strikes once again in Bengal, the state government seems struggling to contain the outbreak.

The outbreak, which started in Khargram block in Murshidabad, has already spread to the neighbouring Kandhi block. The villagers have demanded an increase in compensation and supposed that they are yet to receive aid for the 2008 outbreak.
These include villagers from Mahisar, Baliya, Borowan, Kirtipur, Parulia, Khargram and Jaipur.

As culling teams visited Borowan on 19th January 2010, locals stopped them from taking away their hens and ducks. Despite police escorts, the teams could not enter the villages. There are fifty nine culling teams working in the area, most of whom have been given police escorts.

People are not handing over their domestic poultry, be it hens or ducks. They fail to realize that all their birds will die and there is an ability of human infection. They are not allowing the culling teams to work. We are conducting awareness camps and I am speaking to them.”

Bird flu was confirmed in Nagar and Hajarbati in Khargram on January 14, 2010. At that point in time, the state government had earmarked 60,000 birds to be culled. Meanwhile, the Avian Influenza spread to new areas and pretentious Kandhi — the block bordering Khargram. Though 7 days have passed, only a little over 35,000 birds have been culled.

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