# 2566
Most of the news today (so far) seems to be coming out of India, where the states of Assam and West Bengal are combating serious outbreaks of bird flu in poultry.
In recent days, there have been reports of hundreds of dead crows in and around some of the affected areas in West Bengal. The Statesman carried this story two days ago (link is no longer valid).
Hundreds of crows die after poultry deaths
Statesman News Service
MALDA, Dec. 16: Hundreds of crows have died since yesterday in Budhia village at Norhatta in English Bazaar block, the spot where more than 3,500 chickens died of Bird Flu, causing panic among the people.
The villagers suspect that the dead crows might have eaten the carcass of the Bird Flu affected chickens. The CMOH, Malda, Mr Srikanta Roy, said that this could be a possibility.
Today we are hearing, from a report in The Hindu, that dead crows collected in neighboring Assam state have been tested, and proved positive for the H5N1 virus.
A hat tip to Niman on Flutrackers for posting this article.
Bird flu spreads to seventh district in Assam
Guwahati (PTI): More poultry deaths were reported on Thursday in Assam where avian influenza spread to another district, taking the count of affected districts in the State to seven, even as some crows tested positive for the H5N1 strain.
Blood samples of the crows found dead in Chatribari area in Guwahati were confirmed as H5N1 positive by laboratories in Bhopal and Pune, sources said.
The laboratories also confirmed that avian influenza had spread to three more areas in Assam, hitting seven districts so far with culling operations on in three.
Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary A. Kakati said three samples sent from Sariha village in Barpeta, Kheluamara village in Bongaigaon and Kharguli in Guwahati to the Bhopal-based High Security Diagnostic Laboratory had tested positive.
With this, the number of bird flu affected epicentres increased from six to nine in seven districts, Kakati said. Fresh cases of unusual bird deaths were reported from Karbi Anglong, Nagaon, Lakhimpur, Sibsagar and Golaghat districts, and reports of the samples sent for tests to Bhopal were awaited, the sources said.
Of course, at this point, we don't know which came first: The infected chicken or the crow.
Crows are omnivorous scavengers, and feed largely on garbage and refuse around human habitations, and on insects, small invertebrates, grain, and fruits - providing an ample opportunity for the crows to have acquired the virus from a variety of sources.
While the type of crow isn't identified in the article, it is likely that these are the common House Crow (Corvus splendens) which are native to India and parts of southern Asia.
A collective of crows, is of course, poetically called `a murder'.
