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The team, led by animal husbandry commissioner, Santanu Bandopadhyay, visited Nadia—where presence of bird flu was confirmed two days ago— and Murshidabad.
Senior officials from the state animal resources development department said the team laid stress on ensuring proper disinfection of the poultry farm. They also wanted proper cleaning of bird stool and urine at the farm to stop the re-emergence of the virus.
“But the team also asked us to be alert and follow the guidelines properly. We cannot lie back and relax as the virus has re-emerged in certain areas,” said a senior state official. The officials admitted that a complete ban on transportation and trading of poultry products in the affected areas was not a feasible idea to implement and that awareness campaigns had failed.
“All these factors made the situation critical in the state. But repeated emergence of the virus has made us realise that we have to disinfect the area properly,” a state official said. Meanwhile, culling operations began in Krishnagar after poultry deaths were reported from Ranaghat Block-II of Nadia district in the last two days. Recently, about 800 chickens died from bird flu in the Ranaghat subdivision. The state Animal Resource Development department has decided to cull about 21,000 chickens within a five-kilometre radius of the affected zone.
“The virus has not resurfaced in Ranaghat since the area was not affected by the virus in the first outbreak,” said Nadia district magistrate Onkar Singh Meena. “We cannot estimate the actual cause of chicken deaths but there are many probable reasons for fresh chicken deaths in the area,” he said.
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