Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Dead Birds Raise Flu Fears In West Bengal

 

 

# 2191

 

 

 

 

And from  Crof over at Crofsblog, we get this story from West Bengal, where hundreds of dead chickens were found dumped by the side of a road.  

 

 

No samples were taken for testing, as the police just ordered the villagers to bury the evidence.

 

 

Cooch Behar is located in the northern part of West Bengal, and was the site of culling during India's massive bird flu outbreak earlier this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flu fear after dead birds surface

OUR CORRESPONDENT

 

 

 

 

 

The dead chickens beside NH31. (Main Uddin Chisti)

 

Cooch Behar, July 29: More than 300 dead chickens in a highly decomposed state were found lying beside NH31 this morning, triggering a bird flu scare in the area.

 

 

The administration is still in the dark about how such a large number of dead broiler chickens were thrown beside the highway, about 10km from here. Three dogs died after eating the birds, sources in the administration said.

 

 

Earlier this year, birds had been culled in Cooch Behar district, when chickens in a poultry in Dinhata’s Gitaldaha were detected with the bird flu virus.

 

 

Today, the local people set up a roadblock in the area, about 50km from Gitaldaha, from 7am to 10.30am to protest against the stink that had been emanating from the place.

 

 

The block officer of the animal resources development department, Swapan Das, said: “We are not yet sure where from the dead birds came. Collecting samples from them will be futile because they have all rotted.”

 

(Continue . . .)