Culling resumes in Bengal to combat bird flu

Kolkata, Mar 10 (UNI) Culling resumed today to combat the resurgent bird flu in Murshidabad district as the authorities targeted to wipe out 50,000 birds in the next two days.

" We have targeted to cull about 50,000 poultry birds in Nay Mukundapur and Bodra villages of Murshidabad district in the next two days. The operation is being carried out by 60 teams of health workers," Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahman told reporters at the state Secretariat.

Mr Rahman said samples collected from the two villages of Raghunathpur two and Murshidabad-Jiyaganj blocks tested H5N1 positive at the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) in Bhopal.

About 1,000 birds died in those two areas over the past ten days.

Mr Rahman had earlier said that the new cases might be due to villagers hidding ducks and chickens during the previous culling operation.

About four million birds were culled between January and February in 16 bird flu-hit districts of the state.

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