Bird flu in Maharashtra, Gujarat
by Gyanendra Kumar Keshri

    New Delhi: The Government on Saturday confirmed that bird flu cases have been found in 52 poultry farms in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra and six poultry farms near Surat in Gujarat. "Tests on the eight samples done in animal diseases lab in Bhopal have confirmed the presence of the H5N1 avian flu virus," said P Hota, Health Secretary, Government of India, after an emergency meeting of Secretaries chaired by Cabinet Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi. He said that the initial report has confirmed the presence of H5N1 avian flu virus but the final report is yet to come. Hota said that there were no reports of human infections. "Blood samples of eight people of the affected area have been examined and kept under observation but no sample has been found positive," he said. He also said that apart from Maharashtra and Gujarat no case has been reported from any other state.

    Joint Secretary of Animal Husbandry Upma Chawdhary said that the government has ordered to cull all the chickens in the radius of three kilometers and vaccinate all chicken in the radius of 10 kilometers of the affected area. "We have banned trade in poultry in a 10-km radius of Nandurbar with immediate effect," she said. Chawdhary said that the government was fully prepared to face the situation. "We have airlifted adequate stocks of vaccinations for the healthy birds and Tamiflu for workers," she said. She said that the affected paultry owner will be fully compensated for the loss.

   Meanwhile, the first reports of bird flu from France and Egypt have also come in. No longer is bird flu relegated to pigs and birds, as the virus has strengthened and mutated, resulting in a contagion that can move from bird to human. Human cases of bird flu have caused infections and death across the globe as scientists struggle to identify the dangerous strains and prevent a fatal pandemic. The avian flu has reportedly killed at least 88 people since 2003. Almost all the deaths have been linked to contact with infected poultry, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, setting off a pandemic. Most health experts researching and fighting the incidence of human bird flu have pointed out that the pathogen has not appeared to evolve such that human-to-human contact is contagious, yet it remains that people working with fowl, swimming in infected rivers, playing in an area where carcasses were buried, or breathing air near a poultry processing plant, can lead to infection. Many scientists fear it may be carried by migrating birds to Europe and Africa but say it is hard to prove a direct link.

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