India confirms first bird flu cases in poultry
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-18 22:03

MUMBAI - India confirmed its first bird flu infections in poultry on Saturday after 50,000 birds died in western Maharashtra state, the state's animal husbandry minister said on Saturday.

A federal health ministry official said there were no reports of human infections.
State husbandry minister Anees Ahmed said tests had confirmed the presence of the H5N1 avian flu virus in some of the dead chickens in Nandurbar district, about 450 km (280 miles) north of Mumbai, the country's bustling commercial capital.

Samples sent to a government laboratory in central Bhopal town had confirmed bird flu.

"Yes, it is confirmed. The disease is H5N1. It has come to Maharashtra," Ahmed said by telephone.

"We are treating it as an emergency. We are carrying out the operations of culling birds in Nandurbar. We have sent 200 veterinary doctors there," Ahmed said.

In New Delhi, an emergency meeting of the cabinet secretariat was called, a TV report said.

Maharashtra animal husbandry commissioner Bijay Kumar told Reuters culling operations would start from Sunday and farmers would be adequately compensated.

Maharashtra, India's richest and most industrialised state, has hundreds of poultry farms.

"We have banned trade in poultry in a 10-km radius of Nandurbar with immediate effect," he said.

"We are fully prepared. We have airlifted adequate stocks of vaccinations for the healthy birds and Tamiflu for workers. There are 60 teams working in the area," Kumar added.

"There are 900,000 birds in that area and birds within a 3-km (two miles) radius will have to be culled. There is no report of an outbreak in any other areas," he said.

India is the fifth largest producer of eggs in the world. Livestock and poultry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country.

LINK TO MIGRATORY BIRDS?

The highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread from Asia to Europe and Africa, infecting 171 people since 2003 and killing 93 of them.

Scientists fear that if the virus mutates and acquires the ability to pass easily from person to person, it could cause a pandemic in which millions might die because they would have no immunity.

Uttam Khobragade, principal secretary at Maharashtra's animal husbandry department, said the birds were initially thought to have died from Raniketh disease, but laboratory tests later confirmed avian flu. Raniketh is a local disease that has been affecting poultry in the state for decades.

"It is possible that the bird flu came from migratory birds," Mumbai-based analyst G. Chandrashekhar told Reuters. India receives hundreds of thousands of migratory birds each year, from as far away as Siberia to the far East.

At least 60 percent of India's one-billion plus people live in rural areas close to their livestock, just like in many other parts of Asia, raising the risks of the bird flu virus infecting people.

Poultry farming is particularly popular in Maharashtra. There are 52 poultry farms in Nandurbar area, officials said.

Though a majority of Indians follow Hinduism, which bans meat-eating, its consumption is common in rural and urban areas.