Bird flu spreads in West Bengal as culling slows

By Bappa Majumdar

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - The deadly bird flu virus spread to a new district in West Bengal as authorities said on Monday villagers' resistance to culling operations and poor health awareness was slowing efforts to stamp out the disease.

The H5N1 virus was found among dead birds in Bankura district of West Bengal. Now six of the 19 districts in the communist-ruled state have been infected with the disease.

Around 20 million people live in these infected areas.

The virus was also spreading to new areas within already infected districts and the state was finding it difficult to contain the disease.

"There are difficulties and the virus is moving from one place to the other," Sanchita Bakshi, the state's health services director told Reuters.

"We have to take emergency measures now to tackle the situation," she added.

Culling of poultry came to a halt on Sunday in many places as Muslims, observing the first Muslim month of Muharram, refused to hand over birds for culling.

Only 125,000 birds were culled since last week and officials said they would need more time to slaughter over 500,000 birds.