India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

[Sally Furniss]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

Control & Containment Measures Against Bird Flu Stepped Up in India

http://www.medindia.net/news/Control-Containment-Measures-Against-Bird-Flu-Stepped-Up-in-India-24198-1.htm

The pace of control and containment measures against bird flu has been enhanced. As against 21 Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) yesterday, 32 RRTs have now been deployed. Twenty-two areas have been identified for culling and proper sanitization works in the culling zone.


On 26th July 2007, the second day after the confirmation of outbreak of Avian Influenza, 9,472 poultry birds were culled; 7,159 eggs destroyed; and 450-kilogram poultry feed material disposed of.

RRTs started the actual control and containment operations yesterday after requisite health check-up by medical teams and under coverage of Tamiflu tablet. All the members of RRTs were fully equipped with PPE (personal protection equipment) and control operations were carried out as per the guidelines issued by the Government of India in identified poultry units as well as backyard poultry. Eight areas/villages, 4 each in East and West Imphal districts, were covered on the second day.

A Control Room has been set up at the Office of the Directorate of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Services at Imphal

[HenryN]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

http://broadband.indiatimes.com/videoshow/2240811.cms

Video

[Treyfish]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=articleheader>Death blow to poultry culling team
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleauthor>OUR CORRESPONDENT</TD></TR><TR><TD class=story align=left><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=172 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleauthor align=left>The rapid response team culls chickens at a farm in Imphal on Friday. (PTI) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Imphal, July 28: A member of the rapid response team of Manipur?s veterinary department, which has been engaged in culling poultry since bird flu was detected in the state last week, died today after reportedly consuming formalin, a solution being used to spray the burial sites of culled birds.
Salam Babuyaima, a 53-year-old grade IV employee of the department, collapsed around 8.30am, when the team was preparing to depart for the day?s culling operations in Imphal East and West districts. He died at Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital an hour later.
Veterinary and health officials, who carried out routine health check-ups of the team this morning, ruled out any connection between his death and avian influenza.
The health officials said Babuyaima was found fit during the check-up.
Culling of poultry started on Thursday, following confirmation the previous day that more than 100 birds had died of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu at a farm in Chingmeirong in Imphal East.
Officials said that before leaving for work today, Babuyaima was asked to keep an eye on the materials collected by his team for the operations.
?He was holding an 800ml bottle of formalin and spray equipment. The team went down with the items from the quarantine while the grade IV employee lagged behind. On being asked, he said he had consumed formalin,? an official statement said.
Babuyaima collapsed on his bed in the quarantine ward and was immediately rushed to the hospital, where he died. The formalin he consumed was highly concentrated, an official said.
Veterinary and health officials informed chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh who has decided that the post-mortem report would be made public to dispel any fear regarding the cause of the death.
Veterinary director Th. Dorendro Singh also said the post-mortem report would be made public.
Officials are tight-lipped about why the employee consumed formalin. Investigations are on.
Culling operations continued today in spite of the incident. However, progress was slow. While 16,000 poultry were killed by 3.30pm yesterday, only 9,800 were killed by the same time today.

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070729/asp/nation/story_8120989.asp

[Treyfish]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

<TABLE class=maintable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="90%" align=center border=0 valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2 height=15></TD></TR><TR><TD class=column2 vAlign=top><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width="100%"><ARTTITLE>Culling continues, cops look to check smuggling</ARTTITLE>
29 Jul 2007, 0149 hrs IST,TNN
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-TOP: 5px" colSpan=2></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left><!--google_ad_region_start=article-->IMPHAL/GUWAHATI/SHILLONG: Amid intensified culling in Manipur following the bird flu outbreak, police are keeping their fingers on the gun to prevent smuggling of chickens from within the five-km radius of the poultry farm where the deadly H5 and H5N1 viruses were detected.

Manipur veterinary officials have killed and incinerated over 30,000 birds since culling began on Thursday within a five-km radius from the affected area at Chingmeirong in Imphal East district.

There was no report of human infection, but a member of a culling team, Salam Babuyaima Singh, died on Saturday after he inadvertently consumed formalin, a disinfectant.

"We are not allowing anybody to carry domestic birds out of the death zone. Many incidents of such smuggling have been detected," IGP S Dinokumar Singh said.

"Our men are guarding the transit points at Irilbung and Lamlai that connect Ukhrul and Thoubal districts. There are frequent patrols in and around the area," Imphal East SP L Kailun said.

Thoubal SP Soibam Ibomcha Singh said over 200 chickens, brought from Imphal, were seized at Wangoi and Sekmaijin on Friday and handed over to veterinary officials. In Bishenpur district, DC Aleng A S Shimray has banned the sale and transport of poultry birds, in line with the ban in Imphal.

At Moreh in Manipur near the Myanmar border, police and Assam Rifles have intensified vigil to stop people from smuggling poultry products into the state from the neighbouring country.

Assam Rifles was helping the Manipur government in the culling operation, while BSF has been on alert along the Indo-Bangladesh border to prevent smugglers from bringing in chicken and poultry products from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The Centre had advised the north-eastern states to stop import of poultry from Myanmar and Bangladesh after both nations reported bird flu outbreaks early this year. It was suspected that the virus came to Imphal through poultry smuggled from Myanmar.

"We have sent three teams to assist Manipur veterinary department in the culling exercise," Assam Rifles spokesman Major Arun Devgan said.

The BSF, on the other hand, is extra-vigilant along the Indo-Bangladesh border, though Manipur does not share a boundary with that country.

"We remain alert during border haats (markets) where chances of birds being smuggled in from Bangladesh are high," a BSF officer in Shillong said.

<!--google_ad_region_end=article--><SCRIPT type=text/javascript> var RN = new String (Math.random()); var RNS = RN.substring (2,11); var b2 = '<iframe name="fr1947" id="fr1947" src="http://ads.indiatimes.com/ads.dll/getad?slotid=1947" width="250" height="250" MARGINWIDTH="10" MARGINHEIGHT="0" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" FRAMEBORDER="0" SCROLLING="no" align="right" title="Advertisement" ALLOWTRANSPARENCY="true"></iframe>'; if (doweshowbellyad==1) bellyad.innerHTML = b2; </SCRIPT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/I...ow/2241368.cms</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[Treyfish]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

Culling of chickens continues
Bijay Sankar Bora
Tribune News Service
Guwahati, July 28
Even as the culling of chickens continued within five km radius of avian influenza affected site at Chingmeirong in east Imphal district of Manipur, NGOs have launched mass awareness campaign against the diseases and the dreaded H5N1 strain of virus in the state.
Manipur health department has also focused on examining human population in the vicinity of the bird flu incidence site. So far, no infection in human body was found, according to Dr P. Rajendra Singh in Imphal.
The administration has engaged 40 rapid response teams (RRTs) for culling of chickens. About 30,000 chicken in the state have been culled since the process began on Thursday.
The state health directorate has engaged over 40 medical teams to examine three lakh people living in over 60,000 households in and around Chingmeirong area where the avian flu virus has struck. The screening is intended to be completed within ten days. The National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD), New Delhi, has sent two respiratory ventilators to add teeth to the 10-bed isolation ward in Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital in Imphal. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070729/nation.htm#12

[Treyfish]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

Chicken hunt to intensify, area widened
By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Jul 28: Notwith-standing collection and cul- ling of over 45,000 fowls, ducks and eggs, and con-fiscation of poultry feeds in the three days of bird flu containment efforts spear-headed by the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry De-partment, the same opera- tion is set for a more intense and extensive search akin to mass combing operation - to search and destroy left out domestic birds suscep-tible to the disease.
Even though there is no report of human casualty or admittance to medical cen-tres from infection of the vi- ral disease, the V&AH De-partment is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that areas considered vul-nerable to outbreak of avian influenza is completely sanitised.
According to V&AH Di-rector Dr Th Dorendra near- ly 10,000 fowls and ducks and poultry feeds from wi-thin the five kilometre ra- dius, with chingmeirong as the central point, could be collected and buried as per prescribed norms today bringing the total number of culled birds in the three day campaign to about 44,567.
Compared to the first day culling of about 9473 birds on the first day marked with lack of coordination among the different Department teams specifically set up for the purpose, the second day yesterday recorded a heal-thy figure of 22,998 chickens and 2100 ducks. The latter figure comprises of those domestic birds left unten-ded at Langol and Thang- meiband areas yesterday as further burying activi-ties resumed in the early hours today.
Expectations and tenta-tive target set by the De- partment to increase the number in today?s cam-paign, however, suffered a setback as a personnel of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) collapsed and died minutes before the culling process commenced in the morning. Only 10,000 chic-kens and ducks, 5000 from each of the two capital districts could be culled till late afternoon today.
It is informed that among the destroyed poultry items in the last two days included 10,436 eggs and 2695 kilograms of poultry feeds. Quantity of poultry feeds collected and buried/destroyed for today could not be accounted.
Coming to the Director?s comment on the ongoing campaign, it is informed that the process tomorrow would be on a more wider scale both in area and in-tensity and appealed to clubs, meira paibis and NGOs to extend all possible cooperation to the Depart-ment personnel in contai- ning the disease spread.
Conceding that culling of chickens from organised farms is more convenient compared to similar drive from the backyard farms of residential areas, Dr Doren-dra reiterated his appeal to the general public to hand over chickens and ducks to RRTs for further culling and burying exercises.
dispelling apprehension among the citizens that han-dling of fowls might lead to avian influenza infection, the Director said there is no health hazard if one handles such domesticated birds by covering the hands in plas-tic sheets/bags. However, after handling the birds one needs to thoroughly wash hands and clothes with de-tergents, he cautioned.
RRT personnel directly involved in the collection and culling of fowls need to wear protective gears owing to their nature of duty and vulnerability due to inevita-bility of constant contact with the chickens and ducks, the Director maintained.
Regarding reports of vo-luntary organisation mem- bers confiscating poultry items/products in Thoubal and Bishnupur districts suspected to have been smuggled out from Imphal areas, he conveyed that the confiscated items be hand-ed over to Veterinary depar- tment personnel of the res-pective districts/zones for burial at specified areas.
He, nevertheless, said that all prescribed proce-dure would be difficult to comply with as officials and personnel of the Depart-ment in these districts have been summoned for duty in Imphal areas.
Numerous instances have been reported of the police station concerned sending messages to the Department to collect chic-kens and ducks deposited by the people at the police stations, he informed while assuring that the Depart-ment is committed to res- pond positively and promp-tly to the people?s contri- bution in containing the disease.
Citing man-power shor-tage of V&AH Department to deal adequately with such disease outbreak, the Director fervently appealed to the common citizens for maximum effort and infor-mation to units of the V&AH Department in the districts and to other related de-partments to eliminate the disease before it assumes more dangerous proportion that could prove to be fatal to human beings.
Regarding detection of avian influenza in Ching-meirong area, he said chic- kens reared in the backyard farm of the place of the disease outbreak were pro- cured from the Mantri-pukhri Central Poultry Farm even though the exact origin of the disease is yet to be traced. He also dismissed rumours that the Chingmeirong family bought a chicken from Moreh side which is likely to be the cause of bird flu outbreak and insisted that the affected family never narrated such theory.
Meanwhile, reports were received that four truckloads of poultry feeds were detained briefly at Sekmai police station but had been released as the consignments were meant for farms located beyond the prohibited 10 kilometre radius of the avian flu outbreak centre.
On the otherhand, youths of local voluntary organisations of Kakching Wairi confiscated nearly 100 chickens and two ducks suspected to have been shifted/smuggled out of Imphal area this evening.
The seized items have been buried in the locality, sources added.

http://www.thesangaiexpress.com/News_pages/Local_page-01.htm

[Treyfish]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

Assam Rifles join culling
IMPHAL, Jul 28: Following outbreak of bird flu in Imphal town, a major drive was undertaken by the Hqs IG AR (S) in and around Mantripukhri on July 26 and 27 to contain spread of bird flu, informed an AR PRO release.
With the constitution of six Emergency Response Teams, all the poultry and poultry products in the garrison were centrally collected and were disposed of by the medical officer of 4 AR with the assistance of the team from Veterinary Department.
Moreover, the unit pastor with nursing assistance was also sent to all the neighbouring villages to conduct lecture on the risk of bird flu and necessary precautionary measures to avoid infection.
A total of 326 birds and 2472 eggs were disposed off during the drive, added the release. http://www.thesangaiexpress.com/News...ef%20News.html

[Treyfish]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

http://dahd.nic.in/birdflue.htm Brief to Media on Containment of Avian Inflenza in Imphal, Manipur <TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width="50%">July 27,2007 needs to be opened.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[Sally Furniss]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSDEL33094120070726

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Indian government confirmed on Thursday that the latest outbreak of bird flu in poultry in the remote northeast of the country was of the dangerous H5N1 strain.

"It has been confirmed as the H5N1 strain," Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Vineet Chawdhry told Reuters.

Hundreds of health workers will fan out in Manipur state to check on the health of some 450,000 people in and around the affected poultry farm in the village of Chingmeirong on the outskirts of Imphal, the state capital.

None of the people in the poultry unit or veterinary workers dealing with the outbreak are showing flu symptoms, but they have been put on the anti-flu drug Tamiflu just in case, Chawdhry said.

The confirmation of the H5N1 strain came after authorities received the results from two government laboratories.

India declared itself bird flu free last August after two major outbreaks of the H5N1 virus in chickens in western India. It culled around a million birds to contain those outbreaks.

It plans to slaughter some 150,000 poultry in a 5 km (3 mile) radius around the affected farm.

India has had no human case of bird flu.

Neighboring Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan have also witnessed outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of bird flu this year.

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

Mixed bag on Day IV of culling : 40,000 culled, but bird smuggling on

IMPHAL, Jul 29 : Even as the culling exercise within the designated 5 km radius continues unabated for the fourth day today, there have been no let up in the attempts to smuggle birds and feeds from the affected zones to other parts of the State.

... snip ...

Around 40,000 birds were culled today, said an official source.
This brings the total number of birds culled in the last four days to 1,19,329 including ducks.

Even as co-ordination has improved considerably there is no respite in the attempt to smuggle out birds from the designated zones to other parts of the State.

Birds which were smuggled out from Imphal areas were seized at Wangoi and Lainingkhul today even as attempts to divert the birds were foiled at North AOC, Khoyathong and Kali Bari. MLA of Lamshang Assembly Constituency has also reported to the Control room that unidentified persons abandoned about 100 dead fowls as the spot at Mayang Lanjing today.

On immediate receipt of the information police and Veterinary personnel have been sent to the place to gather the dead fowls. The cause of the death is yet to be ascertained, but they not culled.

To help the State contain the disease from spreading further, the other North East States have offered to extend their help and co-operation.

A Joint Director of the Sikkim Veterinary Department Dr KC Bhutia arrived at Imphal today.

A four member team from Meghalaya is also expected to arrive here by tomorrow.

Likewise Assam has also offered to depute a team to help the State over come the problem of shortage of man power.

At present 34 RRT personnel of the Veterinary Department are being pressed into service, but this has proved inadequate to meet the demand of the situation.

Officials deputed by the Centre who have been arriving in batches during the last few days have started supervising the field work.

To help the State Government, the Centre has sent a fresh batch of 1000 pieces of N-95 masks as well as another 1000 piece of Personal Protection Equipments today.

The Control room has been flooded with calls and SOS messages all through the day.

A report was received today which said that 14 fowls perished at a farm at Tentha Khunou.

Other calls received at Control room included urging the Veterinary Department to come and pick up the fowls which have been left behind in the culling drive.

http://www.thesangaiexpress.com/News_pages/Local_page-01.htm

[tygerkittn]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=headline&newsid=38791&typeid=1

Not sure where to post this, it's India but it's a possible human case, although they seem to not want to admit that's a possibility.

"Irananda said his brother developed fever yesterday and was admitted to JN hospital at around 4 pm. Doctors at the JN hospital casualty department advised he should be admitted in the general ward for observation. Though the family insisted that he should be admitted in the isolation ward for investigation and observation, the doctors declined and discharged his brother at around 5:30 pm.

Subsequently, after his fever worsened, he was taken again to JN hospital. The family`s request for admitting him in the isolation ward was again denied, Irananda said."

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

thanks for posting this Tygerkittn,

there is a seperate thread for reports on (suspected) human infections in India here:

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31133

[tygerkittn]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

I tried there first but it won't let me post in that thread. Sorry!

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

I tried there first but it won't let me post in that thread. Sorry!

No problem! Anything you want to share you can post in "Today's Headlines".
Moderators can move your post if needed.

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: India: bird flu in poultry suspected / confirmed

Culling still on, public health comes into focus

.....some snips referring to poultry ...

IMPHAL, Jul 30 : Even as 11,350 birds including ducks and fowls were culled as of 3.30 pm today by personnel of the 34 RRT personnel pressed into service at different places in Imphal East and West, public health has started to come into the focus of the Government machineries.


Meanwhile, the RRT personnel of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department continued with its culling drive for the fifth day today.

Culling was carried out at Raj Bhawan too today where 12 Vincova breed ducks were reared.

Though the culling process will continue tomorrow, teams will be sent to the zones within the designated 10 kms radius to investigate the reports of unnatural deaths of fowls, which have been pouring in at the Control room set up in the Veterinary office.

Even today, the Control room received reports of the deaths of 240 fowls at Khurai Kongpal Sajor. The birds reportedly perished one after the other during the last few days.

Many calls continue to pour into the Control room, with many urging the RRT personnel to pick up the birds left behind in the last drive.

On the other hand two officials arrived from Mizoram today to over see the situation. Earlier a one member team from Sikkim arrived yesterday.

A team from Meghalaya was supposed to arrive today, but there is no confirmation of their arrival.

http://www.thesangaiexpress.com/News_pages/Local_page-01.htm