H5N1 Encroaches on Calcutta
Recombinomics Commentary 16:56
January 22, 2008
With contiguous districts - Howrah, North and South 24-Parganas - reporting virus sightings in backyard poultry farms, entry of the deadly H5N1 virus into Kolkata now appears imminent.
As many as 41 home-grown chickens were found dead in Howrah's Nalpur village on Tuesday, sending state health officials into a tizzy.
Animal resource department (ARD) officials who went to the village to collect samples, spotted the birds with saliva dripping and liquid oozing out of their eyes - telltale signs of bird flu.
The toll is likely to go up in coming days with similar reports pouring in from Domjur and Uluberia in Howrah and Haroa in North 24-Parganas, they said.
The above comments suggest H5N1 will be confirmed in Calcutta shortly. Nalpur village is in Sankrail, just across the Hooghly River from Calcutta (see satellite map) and is one of many suburban locations with excessive bird deaths. Calcutta has issued an alert.
In addition to poultry deaths, there have also been reports on dead domestic birds, including crows and owls, as well as dead teals.
The involvement of H5N1 in human cases is still unclear. Media reports of cullers in isolation with pneumonia were denied, but a fatal case (8F) in Nadia appears to be far from resolved, although exhumation of the body is also not clear.
The lack of confirmation of H5N1 in districts adjacent to Calcutta appears to be largely linked to the number of samples tested, which at this time seems to be quite low.
Additional testing of birds representing excessive deaths would be useful.
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