# 1020
The idea with any infectious disease outbreak is to contain it, and then try to stamp it out. That is why authorities are quick to set up exclusionary zones, and quarantines.
Unfortunately human nature often gets in the way, as this article demonstrates. Despite government promises of compensation, more than a dozen farmers have been caught trying to move their flocks out of the quarantine zone before the cullers can arrive.
We've heard similar stories from China, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria and Indonesia.
Obviously officials have a ways to go in educating people on the dangers of such actions.
Chicken smugglers caught in northeast's bird flu zone
By Biswajyoti Das
GUWAHATI (Reuters) - More than a dozen poultry farmers in country's bird flu-hit northeast have been caught trying to smuggle flocks of chickens out of the quarantine zone, police said on Saturday.
Local residents were helping police stop people sneaking chickens and poultry products out from within a 5 km radius of a small farm at Chingmeirong village in Manipur state, the site of India's latest bird flu outbreak this week.
The virus detected in Manipur is of the most worrisome H5N1 strain, which can in rare cases infect and kill humans, usually those who spend a lot of time around infected birds.
Scientists fear it could mutate into a form that can be easily passed between humans and trigger a deadly pandemic.
There are no suspected human cases in India at the moment, state health officials said. A lab in the western city of Pune is testing blood samples taken from workers on the affected farm.
Health workers have already killed around 25,000 chickens and destroyed thousands more eggs since Thursday to try and contain the virus. They plan to cull 150,000 in all within the quarantine zone by next week.
Unhappy at the thought of their livelihood being culled, some poultry farmers are trying to escape with their flocks before the culling party arrives, a state police spokesman said.
More than a dozen farmers have so far been detained in local police stations until Saturday evening, by which time their flock will be dead, police said
