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India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 13 - Jan 20
Re: India sounds bird flu alert after chicken deaths; H5N1 confirmed
Cats, dogs, tigers, and of course the vultures. Pigs are also scavengers, so add those to the list. How many pigs do they have in this part of India?
Please do not ask me for medical advice, I am not a medical doctor.
Avatar is a painting by Alan Pollack, titled, "Plague". I'm sure it was an accident that the plague girl happened to look almost like my twin.
Thank you,
Shannon Bennett
Re: India sounds bird flu alert after chicken deaths; H5N1 confirmed
Birdflu situation gets grim, Hawks and crows also hit by H5NI strain
Crows and hawks dying with bird flu symptoms in some areas of the bird flu-hit districts of Birbhum, Murshidabad and South Dinajpur have raised fears that the killer disease may spread to other districts, even Kolkata.
State Animal Resource Development (ARD) department officials said flying birds infected with the H5N1 virus may be carrying the disease to new places.
It is possibly because of the virus having hit flying birds that chickens are dying in areas outside those initially identified as affected by the killer disease. About 2,000 chickens died in Jamuria, Kirnahar and Barwan in Burdwan, Birbhum and Murshidabad districts on Thursday.State Director General of Health Services Sanchita Bakshi said: ?Deaths of several birds and hawks were reported in the bird flu-affected villages in Rampurhat. We are keeping a watch on how these birds are dying.?
Dr Amaresh Chatterjee, a former director in the ARD department told HT: ?It is a matter of concern once crows and hawks are affected with the H5N1 virus. Droplets of affected birds spread the virus rapidly everywhere ? and even in ponds and water bodies. It is not possible to confine these birds in cages, as is possible with poultry birds.?
It is possibly because of the virus having hit flying birds that chickens are dying in areas outside those initially identified as affected by the killer disease. About 2,000 chickens died in Jamuria, Kirnahar and Barwan in Burdwan, Birbhum and Murshidabad districts on Thursday.
The ARD department messed up again in culling birds in Birbhum and South Dinajpur on Thursday at a time when the Centre, along with the World Health Organisation (WHO), criticised the state government for its delay in taking preventive action after the outbreak was confirmed by lab tests in Bhopal and Pune. The Centre has directed the state to cull birds in Murshidabad?s Khargram and Padakandi areas, bordering the worst-affected Rampurhat in Birbhum.
A senior WHO official said the fourth bird flu outbreak in India since 2006 presented its toughest challenge.
About 10,000 birds were culled in Birbhum while hardly 2,000 were killed in South Dinajpur. The state-sponsored culling process is too slow. State government officials said this is because the Centre has not sent an official communication about sharing the cost of culling.
In fact, the Centre is yet to issue an official notification declaring that the disease is of epidemic proportions, said ARD Minister Anisur Rahman.
The minister said payment of compensation to affected farmers would pose little problem.
H5N1 Spread to Murshidabad West Bengal is Likely Recombinomics Commentary 09:34
January 17, 2008
With reports of poultry birds dying in fresh areas, the West Bengal government has decided to extend culling operations in areas in Murshidabad district rather than wait for a Central notification, Anisur Rahaman, Minister for Animal Resources Development, told The Hindu here on Thursday.
On Thursday more than 3,000 chickens died in Murshidabad. The affected areas are Padam Kandi, Kirtipur, Jaypur, Jhilli and Margram in Khargram block. Surprisingly, several crows also reportedly dropped dead in Berhampore. Sources said more than 25 crows died in Khagra crematorium area in Berampore in the last two days and that samples had been sent for tests.
An official admitted: "We feel Murshidabad deaths may also be due to H5N1.
Fresh cases of mortality have also been reported from the Khargram and Burwan blocks of Murshidabad district, adjoining the affected areas of Birbhum.
The above comments strongly suggest H5N1 has spread into Murshidabad blocks adjacent to Birbhum (see satellite map). Dead crows were also seen in the Birbhum outbreak. H5N1 confirmation in Murshidabad would be move the spread closer to Nadia, where there have been thousands of bird deaths. Nadia?s eastern border is shared with Bandladesh, where h5N1 has recently been confirmed in Jessore, which is less than 50 miles from Nadia.
Updates on H5N1 testing of samples from dead birds along the Bangladesh border would be useful.
.
"The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top colSpan=2>Bird flu: villagers stall culling on Day 2
Ravik Bhattacharya Posted online: Friday, January 18, 2008 at 2249 hrs IST
Margram (Birbhum), January 17
Culling operations on the second day here were stalled for about five hours, following an agitation by state coordination committee (affiliated to CPM) members. They gheraoed the Margram police station on Thursday morning, protesting against police harassment of one of their leaders and lack of amenities to carry out protective measures.
They were mostly employees of the Animal Resources Development (ARD) department and were brought in from different districts.
The villagers on their part took out protest rallies, complaining about inadequate compensation.
Reports of agitation and resentment poured in from different affected villages. Villagers refused to hand over their poultry for culling at the compensation rate announced. The villagers also protested digging up pits to bury the chicken.
Later, the operation could be only partially resumed in 127 villages of five affected blocks, including Rampurhat 1 and 2, Nalhati 1 and 2, Mayureshwar 1 and Muraroi 1 and 2. Chicken in two private poultries were also destroyed. Officials said 8,600 chicken and ducks were culled on Wednesday.
?There are some problems, but we have asked district authorities to carry on with awareness campaigns in the villages. It is extremely important that we go on with proper culling operations,? said Dilip Das, Director, ARD department.
Meanwhile, UN experts on Thursday said there were more ?serious? risk factors that are associated with the current outbreak than previously encountered bird flu in the country. The reason: ?the affected areas are more widespread because of proximity of extended border areas.?
The UN reaction comes a day after the Animal Husbandry Department alleged that the state Government had delayed reacting to cases of ?unusual? mortality.
The High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal has tested one sample each from Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts as positive for the H5 AI strain. Preliminary tests also suggest the N1 sub-type, but there is no confirmation. The final report to establish the N-typing (whether it is N1, N2, N3, etc) of the virus would take 5-6 days, according to Government sources. (With Teena Thacker in New Delhi)
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Please do not ask me for medical advice, I am not a medical doctor.
Avatar is a painting by Alan Pollack, titled, "Plague". I'm sure it was an accident that the plague girl happened to look almost like my twin.
Thank you,
Shannon Bennett
Kunal Chatterjee
KOLKATA, Jan. 17: The National Egg Coordination Committee is worried that the poultry industry in the country is likely to suffer a setback over the outbreak of bird flu in an isolated poultry pocket.
NECC officials allege that the panchayats supply 150 chickens free to villagers below the poverty line. These are not looked after and may be considered a principal reason behind the outbreak of the deadly disease every year.
The industry is in a rut owing to the increase in cost of feed such as maize and soya meal. Now, with the declaration of bird flu, egg export could come to a halt. India produces approximately 11 crore eggs a day, of which 1 crore is exported.
Mr Satish Chandra Gupta, NECC manager, Kolkata, said though India is a supplier of eggs, it is West Bengal that produces at least 1.5 lakh eggs daily but that fails to suffice for the entire state. It has to import at least 1.5 crore eggs daily.
He said: ?The fluctuation of egg prices is not abnormal but we have calculated that there has been a 15 per cent drop in West Bengal's egg sale in the last two days.
Every egg that, until two days ago, cost Rs 1.92 is now Rs 1.78 a piece. This has had an impact on poultry products all over the country,? he said. Mr Dilip Kumar Chakraborty, principal secretary of the animal resources development department, is oblivious to the process of chicken distribution by the panchayats.
He said: ?We are not aware whether the chicken supplied by the panchayat is healthy. But the ones that we supply from our farms are healthy because we supply them only after 20 days of birth.?
The Rs 36,000-crore poultry industry has responded to the government's declaration of Birbhum and South Dinajpur as bird flu-affected by urging that the country be zoned and compartmentalised, an NECC official said.
This will ensure that the impact of the flu-hit area is restricted and does not affect the industry, which employs close to 32 lakh people.
The NECC has made the demand in view of the fact that West Bengal is a poultry-deficit area, that is, poultry and eggs from the state do not move out to other parts of the country, Mr Gupta said.
Re: India sounds bird flu alert after chicken deaths; H5N1 confirmed
...feed such as maize...
If this is GM maize, it may have weakened the immune system of poultry, hence their increased susceptibility to H5N1. India has their own version of GM maize, but I don't know the exact details.
.
"The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left width="75%"><TABLE cellSpacing=8><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>Deadly flu spreading fast
Kolkata (IANS)
Thousands of poultry culled in West Bengal
Culling of poultry continued for the second day yesterday in West Bengal amid reports of the deadly avian flu surfacing in new areas. Health workers affiliated to the ruling Marxists halted the culling operations for a while over a tiff with the police.
Officials have sent dead poultry from a new area in the worst-hit Birbhum district and adjoining villages in Murshidabad district to confirm if these had been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the flu virus.
?The new areas are Khargram in Murshidabad and two blocks and Rampurhat municipality area of Birbhum,? West Bengal Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahman said. The culling was halted for some time at Margram, the worst hit area, after government health workers, affiliated to a ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) employees? union, alleged that policemen had assaulted one of their leaders, a local television channel reported.
Later Birbhum superintendent of police K.L. Meena informed that the agitation had been withdrawn and culling resumed. ?The dispute has been resolved and the health workers have joined work,? he said. Anisur Rahman said yesterday morning that 8,000 birds had been culled in Birbhum district since the operation started Wednesday, and 10,000 in Balurghat area of South Dinajpur district.
?The process is sluggish because the teams are not going to big farms but visiting homes and killing backyard poultry. We are beefing up the operation today,? Rahman added.
The three districts now affected are Birbhum, South Dinajpur and Murshidabad.
However, officials have not yet confirmed if the virus in Murshidabad is of the H5N1 strain. They have sent samples to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal for confirmation.
As a result, no culling has started in Murshidabad yet. The affected areas in the district adjoin Birbhum.
The bird flu scare has also spread to South 24 Parganas district adjoining Kolkata besides other south Bengal districts like Hooghly, Nadia and Burdwan from where reports of poultry deaths are pouring in.
Culling began on Wednesday morning for an estimated 378,000 chickens and ducks as the state?s poultry owners urged people not to panic but to treat chickens as complete untouchables.
According to the magistrates of Birbhum and South Dinajpur, the toll of poultry birds from the disease in the two districts rose to 55,000 in the past two weeks.
To carry out the culling, masked men in protective gear appeared like aliens in many areas where awareness about the disease is almost nil.
?We have cooked and eaten our chickens because we heard they would have been killed by the government officials anyway. We have not heard much about the symptoms of the disease,? said Lakhu Sheikh of Tentulia village in Rampurhat Block 2 in Birbhum, about 250 km from Kolkata.
Tentulia is one of the villages where people resisted culling Wednesday.
Many villagers are also smuggling out their poultry and hiding them, health workers said.
A central health ministry team, including its additional director general and the joint secretary, is arriving in Kolkata to assess the situation and hold talks with the state health officials, Rahman said.
While in some villages there is resistance, in most areas people brought hens, ducks and eggs and collected compensation slips at the rate of Rs.40 per big hen and duck and Rs.30 each for the smaller ones.
Officials said in Birbhum, about 55 awareness teams were formed to inform people about bird flu and identify sick birds.
Control rooms have been set up in each block of the affected regions under the supervision of the Additional Chief Secretary of West Bengal Kalyan Bagchi and Animal Resource Development Director Dilip Das.
The border with Bangladesh has been sealed in the affected areas, especially in South Dinajpur, which shares a long border with the neighbouring country.
As the news about the deadly avian flu spread, the demand and prices for chickens nose-dived in Kolkata markets.
West Bengal Poultry Welfare Association assistant secretary Najrul Islam said that poultry farm owners would hold a press conference with the animal resources development minister to dispel unfounded apprehensions about the virus.
?We are also taking care so that the infection does not spread any further. We are providing medication and trying to disinfect the poultry farms,? Islam said.
West Bengal is the fifth state in the country to have been struck by the H5N1 strain of bird flu since the first outbreak in Maharashtra in February 2006, and in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur.
In Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, about a million birds had to be culled in 2006 after the presence of the H5N1 virus was confirmed.
The virus causes a type of influenza in birds that is highly contagious and can be deadly. It does not usually infect people unless they come in close contact with infected birds or contaminated surfaces.
Avian influenza experts say speed in extinguishing the outbreak is crucial. The state government would need to prevent the movement of poultry out of the affected area, they stressed.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD> Article from: Bahrain Tribune Newspaper- www.BahrainTribune.com</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Please do not ask me for medical advice, I am not a medical doctor.
Avatar is a painting by Alan Pollack, titled, "Plague". I'm sure it was an accident that the plague girl happened to look almost like my twin.
Thank you,
Shannon Bennett
Re: India sounds bird flu alert after chicken deaths; H5N1 confirmed
Fresh cases of bird flu deaths
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Even as 11,225 poultry birds were culled and 5,877 eggs and 1,218 kg of poultry feed destroyed on Thursday in the bird flu-affected districts of West Bengal, fresh cases of unusual mortality were reported from two blocks of Murshidabad district and one block each of Nadia, Bardhaman and Parghana districts. This put pressure on the West Bengal government to take urgent steps to contain the situation and step up surveillance. Assistance
The Central government has assured all assistance to the State in terms of expertise, equipment and funds. Union Animal Husbandry Commissioner, S.K. Bandyopadhyay, who is the Chief Veterinary Officer , has rushed to the affected areas to assess the situation.
The total number of unusual deaths of poultry birds has been put at 61,075 in the affected districts of Birbhum, Dakshin Dinajpur and Murshidabad, according to the Department of Animal Husbandry.
The situation is being closely monitored and the State government has been asked to take steps for containment and surveillance, said a senior official.
These deaths are being investigated by the State. Action is also being taken to collect samples and take them to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal. Rapid Response Teams
Sources said 58 Rapid Response Teams were carrying out culling operations in Birbhum district; 26 teams were on the job in Dakshin Dinajpur district.
Kolkata, January 15, 2008
First Published: 02:16 IST(15/1/2008)
Last Updated: 02:19 IST(15/1/2008)
(snip)
A senior official of the Birbhum district administration said, “There might be every possibility of the bird flu infection spreading among local people who either ate affected chickens or came into close contact with the affected birds during the past week.”
(snip)
India has been on high alert ever since bird flu was detected in neighbouring Bangladesh in December.
Consider the additional rolling dice (opportunity for further, expedited reassortment/recombination/mutation [take your pick] - with the "potential millions of Indian citizens" consuming (eating) these at least suspect H5N1 infected - dead poultry - daily.
This would seem to me to be of grave concern for all. IMHO.
Re: India sounds bird flu alert after chicken deaths; H5N1 confirmed
Birds only started dying en masse early yesterday. Typically it takes 2 days before symptoms appear in humans. If there are cases they won't show up until tomorrow or the next day.
Please do not ask me for medical advice, I am not a medical doctor.
Avatar is a painting by Alan Pollack, titled, "Plague". I'm sure it was an accident that the plague girl happened to look almost like my twin.
Thank you,
Shannon Bennett
Re: India sounds bird flu alert after chicken deaths; H5N1 confirmed
from post #113:
Sources said more than 25 crows died in Khagra crematorium area in Berampore in the last two days and that samples had been sent for tests.
While those crematoriums are "electric", given the Indian tradition of body disposal by vultures, IF those bodies were exposed to crows prior to cremation........those may have been human cases.
.
"The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation
Re: India sounds bird flu alert after chicken deaths; H5N1 confirmed
Yet another reason to be aware of cultural differences.
Please do not ask me for medical advice, I am not a medical doctor.
Avatar is a painting by Alan Pollack, titled, "Plague". I'm sure it was an accident that the plague girl happened to look almost like my twin.
Thank you,
Shannon Bennett
Re: India sounds bird flu alert after chicken deaths; H5N1 confirmed
Bird deaths trigger panic in Kolkata</ARTTITLE> 18 Jan 2008, 0313 hrs IST,TNN
SMS NEWS to 58888 for latest updates <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left>KOLKATA: The city is in the grip of a bird flu scare, with reports of birds dying in Sealdah and Kalighat triggering the alarm bells. There are no signs that the H5N1 virus has reached Kolkata but panic-stricken residents shunned poultry products in spite of the prices hitting rock bottom.
Even small eateries took chicken off the menu. With the marriage season on, small retailers have been dealt a body blow.
The scare in Kolkata was triggered by news of a chicken dying in Sealdah?s Baithakkhana Market. Though a civic team said the dead bird had no signs of avian flu, Prasenjit Chowdhury, who owned of the shop, downed shutter. Within minutes, the chicken market was deserted and the ripple effect was felt throughout the city.
"Sales crashed by 70% on Thursday. It is likely to dip further in the coming days," said Dipendu Kotal, a meat shop owner. Prices dropped to Rs 60 a kg or even less, but people wouldn?t venture near any chicken stall.
"To make it worse, some television channels repeatedly showed footage of the dead chicken though it had nothing to do with the bird flu outbreak. If the media keeps highlighting things in such a negative aspect, all of us will be ruined," said another meat shop owner.
There is no reason to panic, said Amal Kanti Mazumdar, deputy director of the state poultry farm in Tollygunge, the largest and oldest in the state. "On an average, 15 to 50 chickens die every day in the farm due to age or an egg getting stuck while being laid. This doesn?t mean they are infected. Moreover, not even a single fowl died at the poultry on Thursday. There is no cause for fear. People need not stop having chicken," he said.
A team from Kolkata Municipal Corporation went to Baithakkhana but couldn?t find anything out of the ordinary. They visited 10 other markets, including New Market.
The Tollygunge poultry farm, which has 15,000 chickens, 300 turkeys and 300 quails, has restricted entry of outsiders and is checking its livestock twice a day. Every individual or vehicle entering the place is being disinfected. "Protection gear has been issued to those handling the fowls. Disinfectant like bleaching powder and soda ash has been sprayed all over the campus," said Mazumdar.
The farm is trying to stop contamination in every possible way. Dry leaves are being raked in and burnt so that the smoke can scare away crows and other birds, reducing the risk of outside contamination. "They are the major carriers of infection. No one knows where the birds are migrating from. We have to take every precaution to prevent crows from reaching the chickens through the cages," said Mazumdar. The poultry farm is sending 5,000 fowls to Midnapore on Friday.
"Till now, no abnormalities have been reported. Residents in the vicinity of a poultry farm need not panic. Only those handling the birds have to take any precaution," assured Mazumdar.
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<!--Start of Header--> November 4, 2006
<!--End of Header--><!--Start of Body Section -->Sanchita Sharma, Hindustan Times Email Author
New Delhi, January 18, 2008
First Published: 03:04 IST(18/1/2008)
Last Updated: 03:08 IST(18/1/2008)
Even water can carry bird flu
The dreaded H5N1 bird flu virus ? whose outbreak has been confirmed in West Bengal ? is more infectious than previously thought, according to World Health Organisation experts.
The virus can travel by sticking to surfaces, get kicked up in dust and feed to infect people and contaminate ponds and lakes, the experts said in a report published in The New England Journal of Medicine. This is a cause of worry for India, as ponds and catchments are sources of water in several villages.
In India, the WHO sounded another alert, saying the Bengal outbreak was more serious than the previous outbreaks in Maharashtra and Manipur. ?More serious risk factors are associated with this current outbreak than previously encountered, including that the affected areas are more widespread and because of proximity to extended border areas,? said a WHO expert in India.
For the journal, the WHO team reviewed all known human cases of bird flu, which has infected 350 people in 14 countries and killed 217 since 2003. It found that 25 per cent of cases had no explanation. Most are passed directly from bird to people, and rarely one person can infect another ? always via intimate physical contact.
?For some patients, the only identified risk factor was visiting a live-poultry market. In one quarter or more of patients with influenza A (H5N1) virus infection, the source of exposure is unclear, and environment-to-human transmission remains possible,? wrote study leader Dr Frederick Hayden.
"Eating well-cooked chicken cannot infect people, but ingestion of virus-contaminated products or swimming or bathing in virus-contaminated water might pose a risk," he wrote.
Although birds in over 60 countries have been infected with the H5N1 strain, people have rarely got infected. "After exposure to infected poultry, the incubation period generally appears to be 7 days or less, and in many cases this period is 2 to 5 days," the report said.
H5N1 infection usually causes severe pneumonia. On the symptoms, the experts wrote, "It is unknown whether influenza A (H5N1) virus infection can begin in the human gastrointestinal tract." "In several patients, diarrheal disease preceded respiratory symptoms, and virus has been detected in feces," they wrote.
The experts feared that H5N1 might mutate or combine with seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people.
The virus kills within 9 to 10 days and has killed 61 per cent of infected people since 2003.
Since the viruses do not commonly infect people, there is little or no immune protection against them in the human population.
Quick use of antiviral drugs can save lives, with oseltamivir (brandname Tamiflu) being the drug of choice.
Please do not ask me for medical advice, I am not a medical doctor.
Avatar is a painting by Alan Pollack, titled, "Plague". I'm sure it was an accident that the plague girl happened to look almost like my twin.
Thank you,
Shannon Bennett
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