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Fresh poultry deaths were reported from a farm in South 24-Parganas in West Bengal on Wednesday, raising fears that the dreaded H5N1 virus might be spreading to the organised sector after affecting backyard poultry.
Official sources said that 250 chicken died today morning at a private poultry farm, under the Maheshtala municipality, in South 24-Parganas.
District health officials told PTI that there had been no instance of avian flu in the area earlier. Blood samples have been collected from the farm situated at Benerpukur, health officials said.
Meanwhile, culling operations continued in Budge Budge, from where a large number of chicken deaths were earlier reported.
In North 24-Parganas, where bird flu has not been officially declared, culling has been taken up in Baduria, Swarupnagar and Habra blocks on symptomatic evidence, District Magistrate Prabhat Mitra said.
Culling in backyard poultry and in poultry farms has been taken up in a radius of five km of the affected areas in the three blocks, the DM said. Over 4,000 chicken deaths had been reported from a private farm in Baduria on Tuesday.
With avian deaths reported from the district, Kolkata is now ringed by bird flu affected districts - South and North 24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly.
With bird flu knocking at the doors of the metropolis, the state government on Tuesday restricted the entry of chicken into the city from only 12 farms.
In Birbhum district, where avian influenza was first reported in the state on January 15, culling is being taken up today in Suri I block, official sources said.
So far, 8 lakh chicken have been culled in the district, the sources said. Elsewhere in the district, culling operations have ended and mopping up operations have started in six blocks and two municipalities today, the sources said.
The blocks are : Rampurhat I & II, Nalhati I & II, Maureshwar I & II, Bolpur-Sriniketan block I & II, Labhpur and Nanur. The municipalities are: Rampurhat and Nalhati.
In
A block level meeting is being held among officials of Debra block in
Culling teams have fanned out to Uttar Panchla village under Panchla block in
A report from Hooghly district said a three-member team from the Union Health ministry, led by Dr B C Jain, today visited areas of Balagarh and Mogra blocks, from where poultry deaths have been reported. District Magistrate Vinod Kumar on Wednesday said that the culling target in the district had been completed.
Meanwhile, panic gripped Arambagh sub-division in the district where the state's largest hatchery farm, Arambangh Hatcheries, is situated, official sources said. Sub-divisional Officer, Arambagh, Subhanjan Das however, allayed fears and said officials of Arambagh Hatcheries were in constant touch with the district authorities.
Das said the movement of people with poultry had been restricted in the district. Arambagh sub-division, comprising four blocks, has 120 poultry farms besides Arambagh Hatcheries. Chicken was being sold in the open market at Arambagh at Rs 25 per kg today.
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