India builds new labs to fight bird flu spread

By Krittivas Mukherjee

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India, fighting a bird flu outbreak in poultry that threatens to get out of control, will build several new laboratories in a bid to combat delays in testing the virus and spur faster public health responses.

As avian influenza sweeps the country's most densely populated state of West Bengal, India's only laboratory specialising in testing bird flu is dealing with many times the number of samples it can handle.

Hundreds of samples of dead birds are being sent every week to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal to test for what the World Health Organisation says is the worst outbreak of bird flu in India.

"It has been decided to build several new laboratories especially in view of the bird flu situation now," Santanu Kumar Bandyopadhyay, India's animal husbandry commissioner told Reuters late on Tuesday. "Things are moving quickly."

While the laboratory clears the backlog, veterinary workers at potentially infected areas wait for the signal to begin culling poultry, often running the risk of the virus spreading.

Officials say new laboratories and research facilities are imperative in view of the rapid spread of the avian flu in West Bengal.

To begin with, at least six laboratories are being built which will be of biosafety level-3 (BSL-3), or clinical and diagnostic facilities that work with potentially lethal agents.

The new laboratories will supplement the efforts of the Bhopal laboratory.