Ignorance of dangers hampers India bird flu fight

By Bappa Majumdar

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Indian health workers urged villagers at the centre of a bird flu outbreak to stop dumping dead fowl in ponds on Friday, as ignorance about the virus hampers efforts to contain its spread.

The eastern state of West Bengal, where the latest outbreak of bird flu has been reported in poultry, was to cull 400,000 chickens in a week, but officials said the task may not be completed in even a fortnight.

The virus has been detected in three districts where more than 60,000 birds have died, the agriculture ministry said.

But the ministry is also investigating suspicious bird deaths in three other districts in the state, it said in a statement, including in areas more than 300km (180 miles) away from earlier outbreaks.

The World Health Organization has described this outbreak as the most serious yet seen in India, partly because it is spread over a large area.

"It is alarming, but do not get panicked," Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, West Bengal's chief minister, told reporters.

In many of the quarantined villages, bare-chested villagers in cotton wraparounds picked dead birds with their hands and dumped them in ponds, increasing the risk of the virus spreading.

Health and veterinary staff used loudspeakers in Margram village, the epicenter of the outbreak, to ask people not to dump dead birds in ponds and watertanks and report deaths in poultry.