Zoos alerted all over India, bird deaths in Jalpaiguri

Jalpaiguri (West Bengal), Feb 1 : Central Zoo Authority has alerted the whole country to take precautions as chicken deaths at new localities.

Today three hundred chickens have died in Baganbari village in Falakata area of Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.

So far no humans have been affected. More than 3,500 human samples have been sent and none have tested positive.

Suri-1 Block and Raghnathganj Block-2 of West Bengal's Birbhum and Murshidabad Districts are culling the birds today.

The total number of bird-flu hit districts in West Bengal has gone up to 13 out of 19, despite the culling of birds being taken up on a war footing.

Meanwhile, 38 chickens were found dead at Takdah village, which sparked the fear of bird flu in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.

The West Bengal Animal Husbandry Ministry to 28 lakh has revised the culling figure in the district. Panic also gripped poultry farmers in Haryana's Bhiwani District due to mysterious death of thousands of chickens. Poultry owners were scared that the bird flu virus has hit them. In Uttar Pradesh, authorities buried over 2000 chicken following reports that the poultry were brought from bird flu-affected West Bengal.

Around 5000 chickens were brought by poultry farm owners in Shahjahanpur. Out of these 1,500 died under mysterious circumstances.

In 2006, after bird flu was detected in Maharashtra, the Centre had given a four per cent subsidy on interest on loans given to the organised sector and backed it up with subsidy on poultry feed.

ANI