India struggles with bird flu

Laboratory workers on Saturday analysed new samples from dead chickens amid fears that India's worst-ever bird flu outbreak may have spread in eastern India as locals resisted a massive cull.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called the outbreak of avian flu among poultry in the densely populated eastern state of West Bengal the worst the country has faced -- partly because it is more widespread.

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee called the situation "very serious," while officials reported villagers were throwing chicken carcasses into rivers and ponds, increasing risks of the virus spreading.

Bird flu has been confirmed in three districts of West Bengal where 85,000 poultry have died from the disease, the federal government said in a statement.

Fresh bird deaths were reported from another three districts and laboratory officials were analysing the dead poultry, the statement said.

The outbreak is the third in India, home to 1.1 billion people, since 2006 but it has not had any human cases.

"More serious risk factors are associated with this current outbreak than (the two) previously encountered... the affected areas are more widespread and because of the proximity to extended border areas," the WHO said.

West Bengal borders Bangladesh, which is has been suffering since last February from an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain that analysts fear could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people.

Laboratory officials are working to confirm whether the Indian bird flu outbreak is also of the highly contagious H5N1 strain.

More than 36,000 chickens had been slaughtered so far in the three affected districts in Marxist-ruled West Bengal, where poverty is rampant.

Authorities aim to slaughter 400,000 birds in a five to 10-kilometre (three- to six-mile) radius of the affected areas and have said the process could take at least another six days.

The epicentre of the outbreak is Margram village 240 kilometres (150 miles) from the state capital Kolkata.

"The government has declared Margram highly sensitive," state animal resources development minister Anisur Rahman said, adding the number of culling teams had been increased to 300 from 65.

Chickens were still on sale in affected areas despite a ban, local officials said, and New Delhi had called in troops to prevent birds being smuggled out.

Humans typically catch the disease by coming into direct contact with infected poultry.

Attempts to fight the outbreak were frustrated by a lack of cooperation from local people angered by what they said was inadequate compensation for the dead birds.