Suspect H5N1 in Uttar Pradesh
Recombinomics Commentary 20:36
February 5, 2008
In Spite of the state government’s claim that there are no chickens in the state that were imported from the bird flu-affected areas of West Bengal after it carried out culling operations in Shahjehanpur and Sant Kabirnagar, the latest reports of poultry deaths in Sitapur and Lakhimpur districts have alarmed the state officials.
There are also reports of chicken deaths from a poultry farm in Pure Angan village in the Purwa block of Unnao district.
He said that 1,500 chickens that were sent to Shahjehanpur from Varanasi were culled a day after it was brought here and another lot of 1,500 poultry sent to Awadhesh Poultry Farm in Lakhimpur was “tracked and destroyed’.
After there were reports of poultry deaths from Maholi block of Sitapur district, a team of Animal Husbandry Department had visited the poultry farm and had destroyed around 500 chicks.
The serum of the dead chicks was sent to a laboratory in Pune and the state government is yet to receive the results of the tests.
The above comments describe excessive poultry deaths in multiple regions in Uttar Pradesh (see satellite maps here and here). Although there have been no confirmed H5N1 in India west of West Bengal, testing is minimal and results are delayed.
Widespread confirmed H5N1 in Bangladesh, West Bengal, and Pakistan suggests the excessive poultry deaths in northern India are due to H5n1 migrating into the area. Both Bangladesh and Pakistan have reported H5N1 in dead wild birds, including crows, West Bengal has yet to confirm H5N1 in crows or any wild bird.
The negative data generated in wild birds and patients remains suspect, and these excessive poultry deaths in Uttar Pradesh suggest H5N1 has spread through much of northern India.
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