Precautionary Culling Begins in Jharkhand
Recombinomics Commentary 16:38
February 5, 2008
The Jharkhand government Tuesday ordered the culling of chickens in nine districts bordering the bird flu hit state of West Bengal.
Officials said the animal husbandry department of the state has issued the order to the district administrations of Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Seraikela and Kharsawa, Pakur, Sahebganj, Jamtara, Dumka, Bokaro and Dhanbad.
Nearly 200 chickens died in Angada block of Ranchi district about 15 days ago but officials are yet to confirm whether or not they fell prey to the avian influenza virus.
The above comments announce “precautionary” culling in nine Jharkhand districts adjacent to West Bengal (see satellite map here and here). Jharkhand is among the regions in eastern India that has been sealed from the rest of the country. Although there are no official confirmations of H5N1 in birds, the lack of positives is firmly linked to the lack of testing. As noted above, test results on excessive poultry deaths near Ranchi have not been released. Moreover, the withheld data described above only represents poultry deaths that have been made public.
The likelihood that H5N1 infections have been limited to West Bengal is low. There have been numerous reports of wild birds dying near confirmed H5N1 outbreaks, and these infected birds are not likely to respect district borders.
In addition to not releasing the result of H5N1 tests the excessive poultry deaths in the Ranchi district, there have been no reports of confirmed H5N1 in the dead wild birds in India and the recent announcement of no human H5N1 cases in West Bengal is also likely false.
While West Bengal is announcing control of H5N1 spread, Bangladesh is announcing an explosion in confirmed cases, including dead crows which are dying by the hundreds or thousands.
Thus, the planned cull of 2 million birds in regions adjacent to West Bengal more accurately reflects H5N1 in the region, than the negative reports on birds in adjacent regions, or wild birds and humans throughout India.
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