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MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, Feb 18: India confirmed its first bird flu infections in poultry on Saturday and began tests on eight human beings after 50,000 birds died in the western state of Maharashtra.
“We are testing eight humans for (the) bird flu virus in the affected area of Maharashtra,” federal Health Secretary P.K. Hota said.
“Their blood samples have been sent for testing in Pune. Four other people, including three children, are being kept under observation.”
But the official said so far there were “no clinical symptoms” in the cases. Test reports would be available in 72 hours, he said, adding all states had been advised to be on a “lookout”.
Maharashtra Animal Husbandry Minister Anees Ahmed earlier confirmed the presence of the H5N1 avian flu virus in some of the dead chickens in Nandurbar district, about 450kms north of Mumbai.
Samples sent to a government laboratory in the central town of Bhopal had confirmed bird flu, he said. “Yes, it is confirmed. The disease is H5N1. It has come to Maharashtra,” Anis Ahmed said.
“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,” the minister said.
“The government is taking adequate precautions to segregate healthy birds from the infected birds,” a statement from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office said.
“More vaccines for poultry and more doses of Tamiflu and personal protective equipment has been ordered.”
ECONOMIC COSTS: Maharashtra, India’s richest and most industrialised state, has hundreds of poultry farms.
Maharashtra Animal Husbandry Commissioner Bijay Kumar said that authorities have banned trade in poultry in a 10-km radius of Nandurbar with immediate effect.
“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 said.
“There are 900,000 birds in that area and birds within a three-km radius will have to be culled. There is no report of an outbreak in any other areas,” he added.
India is the fifth largest producer of eggs in the world. Livestock and poultry is one of its fastest-growing sectors.
“If they are able to contain it within a small area, the economic impact will not be much but if it spreads, the economic costs will be very, very high,” Saumitra Chaudhuri, economic adviser at a domestic rating agency, said.
“Our ability to administer or control movement of goods is not very good,” he said.—Reuters
