KOLKATA, India (Thomson Financial) - The World Health Organization Thursday
warned that an outbreak of bird flu in eastern India was far more serious than
two previous outbreaks.
"More serious risk factors are associated with this current outbreak than
previously encountered, including that the affected areas are more widespread
and because of proximity to extended border areas," the organisation said.
Health officials are engaged in culling 400,000 birds in several districts
of India's heavily populated eastern West Bengal state bordering Bangladesh,
which is also struggling with the virus.
The slaughter started a day after India's agriculture ministry confirmed
that the death of 35,000 birds in West Bengal was due to the deadly H5N1 strain.
According to India's federal health ministry, 35,525 poultry in West
Bengal's Birbhum district as well as 288 birds in a state-run poultry farm in
the state's Dinajpur district had died, but it added the outbreak appeared to be
localized.
The outbreak is the third in India, home to 1.1 billion people, since 2006.
Humans are typically infected by coming into direct contact with infected
poultry, but experts fear the deadly virus may mutate into a form easily
transmissible between humans.
Wild migratory birds have been blamed for the global spread of the disease,
which has killed more than 200 people worldwide since 2003.
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