# 2404
The government of Tripura, India is denying that there are any outbreaks of Bird Flu in their state. This, they say, is in response to an erroneous report by a national news agency.
No bird flu in Tripura
Agartala, Oct 21 : The Tripura government today denied any case of avian influenza in the state.
Speaking to mediapersons, Animal Resource Development(ARD) Minister Aghore Debbarma said there was no report of bird flu as reported by a national news agency.
''We don’t have any report of avian influenza in Khowai subdivision of West Tripura district or elsewhere,'' he said.
''Had there been any incident, the state government would have been aware of it. I don’t know from where they (media) got such a baseless information,'' Mr Debbarma said.
He added that only three areas--Kamalpur in Dhalai district, Sidhai and Bishalgarh in West Tripura district were declared as bird flu affected last June.
After that no avian flu case was reported to the department, he maintained.--- UNI
I've looked, but I've been unable to find any report of bird flu in Tripura in recent days. The closest I've found is this, from October 19th, urging that people remain alert due to recent outbreaks in neighboring Bangladesh.
Tripura sounds bird flu alert along Indo-Bangla border
Agartala, Oct 19 (PTI) An alert has been sounded along the porous Indo-Bangla international border in Tripura following reports of bird flu in the neighbouring country, official sources said here today.
Sylhet, Srimanagal and Habigunj districts of Bangladesh, bordering Khowai subdivision of West Tripura district and Kamalpur subdivision of Dhalai district, have recently been affected by avian influenza, the sources said.
Border Security Force (BSF) was keeping a close vigil along the 856 km-long border to prevent the entry of chicken and poultry in the border markets, the sources said.
The state government also alerted all the district administrations and was organising workshops with the employees on disease control, the sources said.
An assistant director of animal resource department, posted at Khowai subdivision, Samarendra Das, told reporters that a coordinated effort was needed to stop the spreading of disease. PTI
Tripura was one of the Indian states hit particularly hard last Spring, which they blamed on neighboring Bangladesh. Sporadic outbreaks were reported into early summer, but we've heard very little out of that region for the past few months.
