# 1015
The past 24 hours we've seen a good many reports on how this latest outbreak in India is affecting that region of the world. While thus far this outbreak is deemed `isolated', officials seem to be reacting vigorously, handing out masks and doing door-to-door canvassing of neighborhoods looking for people with possible infections.
So far no human infections have been reported.
India kills fowls, checks people in bird flu fight
Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:20PM IST
By Biswajyoti Das
GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Veterinary workers in protective clothing broke the necks of thousands of chickens on Friday while medical staff checked people for flu symptoms to contain an outbreak of bird flu in poultry in country's northeast.
The outbreak of avian influenza in chickens this month on a small farm in the remote state of Manipur was the first in India this year, making it the 25th country to report the occurence of the H5N1 strain in 2007.
Over 9,000 chickens have been killed in and around Chingmeirong village on the outskirts of Imphal before being thrown into huge pits that were then covered with lime and salt and finally with soil.
Authorities plan to kill 150,000 birds by next week in a 5 km radius of the village.
Officials said there were no reported suspected human cases in the state, which borders Myanmar.
But they said they would continue to question thousands of people around the affected area on whether they were suffering from flu symptoms and had contact with poultry.
Volunteers distributed surgical masks on the streets of Imphal, while some kept watch on trucks and three-wheeler vans to stop smuggling of poultry from the affected area.
"One auto-van loaded with chickens on its way out of Imphal was caught by some residents and handed over to the police," said Ashok Meitei, a local businessman.
In some neighbourhoods near the affected farm where medical teams had not yet visited, anxious residents opened camps and asked those suffering from fever to report for checks.
Officials say the outbreak in Manipur seems isolated.
