# 1528
Already falling behind schedule, cullers in West Bengal are now hampered by rain which is bogging down dirt roads and making many areas inaccessible.
According to this report, 10 districts in West Bengal (out of 19) are now affected.
Rain forces culling halt as India battles worst bird flu outbreak
MURSHIDABAD, India (AFP) — India's battle against its worst-ever outbreak of bird flu suffered a new blow Thursday as rain forced a halt to culling in West Bengal, an official said.
The virus has already spread to over half the state and the government there has declared the outbreak a crisis, having already admitted it was falling behind in its fight against the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu.
"Culling has been stopped for the time-being because of the rain -- it will start immediately after the rains cease," state animal resources minister Anisur Rahaman told AFP in Murshidabad, 230 kilometres (140 miles) north of the state capital Kolkata.
Doctors and veterinarians from neighbouring states were arriving in Kolkata to join the culling teams fanning out across the state, the minister said.
But rains, which began early Thursday, had turned many of the rural dirt roads into mud rivers, complicating the battle against the outbreak -- the third and by far the worst to hit India.
Although India has so far not had any human cases of bird flu, Rahaman said he feared the disease would spread to humans with hundreds of people reporting flu symptoms and children "playing with chickens" in affected villages.
Ten out of West Bengal's 19 districts have been affected by bird flu -- representing more than half of the eastern state of 80 million people.
