| Bird flu spread to a third district in West Bengal while new areas in another three districts reported large-scale deaths of birds as Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today described the situation as “very serious.”
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| Union Animal Husbandry Secretary Pradeep Kumar told reporters in New Delhi that bird samples from Murshidabad district tested positive for bird flu on the basis of rapid tests and authorities were considering starting culling operations there.
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| In Birbhum and South Dinajpur, where the outbreak of bird flu was confirmed, culling continued for the third day today.
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| The Centre confirmed that the samples from these two districts were the deadliest H5N1, which can mutate and infect human Beings. Poultry deaths in these two districts and Murshidabad touched 85,000.
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| The districts of Burdwan, Bankura, Cooch Behar,Nadia and Purulia and 24 South Paragans reported several cases of bird deaths.
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| But central officials said tests of samples in Purulia, Cooch Behar and Nadia proved negative. Asked by newsmen how alarming the situation was, Bhattacharjee said it was “very serious”.
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| “We will have to kill four lakh birds in the affected districts. For this, we have decided to increase the strength of the culling teams,” he added.
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| There was some panic in Kolkata when dead crows and owls were found in the southern and eastern parts of the metropolis. Bhattacharjee described the situation as normal and said there was no cause for people to be worried.
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| “There is no report of any outbreak of the disease in poultries in Kolkata. However, an alert was sounded in the city,” he said. |
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