Nearly a month after 3.5 million birds were culled in a bid to control the avian influenza that had affected 14 out of 19 districts, the West Bengal Government is once again gearing up to tackle a fresh outbreak. The administration received confirmation on Saturday night that several samples had tested positive for H5N1 virus in two villages of Murshidabad district.

Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahman said on Sunday that bird flu had been confirmed in Nayamukundpur in Raghunathgunge Block II and in Dohapara village in Jiagunj block. Reports said several hundred birds had died over the past one week in both the villages, located 300 km from here.

“We will begin culling in the affected areas from Monday. Nayamukundpur was one of the villages that was affected during the initial outbreak. It could be that villagers had hidden some birds during culling operations which could have spread the virus again,” the minister said.

Murshidabad District Magistrate Subir Kumar Bhadra said 50,000 birds were expected to be culled in the vicinity of the villages, starting Monday morning. “The entire exercise should take two to three days. Last week, there were unnatural deaths among poultry birds, following which samples were sent to the High Risk Animal Diseases Laboratory at Bhopal,” he said.

In early February, the administration had breathed a sigh of relief following culmination of the culling exercise. The World Health Organisation in its report had called the Bengal outbreak the worst among the three avian influenza episodes in India —- Maharashtra, Manipur and West Bengal. Recently, the culling in all 14 affected districts had been declared complete and the ban on sale and consumption of poultry products had been lifted. Of the 19 human blood and serum samples sent to the Bhopal lab, all had tested negative for the virus. According to information available, nearly two million people stay in the affected areas.

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