India begins culling chickens in bird flu-hit Tripura

By Biswajyoti Das

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - India began culling thousands of chickens on Tuesday and checking people for fever in remote northeastern villages on the border with Bangladesh after tests on dead poultry confirmed bird flu infections.

Around 100 health workers wearing protective suits and masks began collecting chickens and ducks from eight villages in Dhalai district in Tripura state, where 3,000 birds died in the past week.

"The state government is fully prepared to tackle the situation. There is no dearth of medicines or trained veterinary and medical staff in the affected area," said Aghore Debbarma, Tripura's Animal Resources Development Department minister.

He said at least 21 rapid-action teams were formed to carry out culling of around 20,000 birds in the affected area to prevent further spread of the H5N1 avian flu virus.

Tripura borders Bangladesh, where more than half the country's districts have been affected by the virus.

In India, the virus surfaced in West Bengal earlier this year and appeared to have been contained by culling nearly four million birds. But the virus has intermittently flared up.

India's egg trade suffered losses of millions of rupees following the outbreak of bird flu after Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries banned egg imports.

Chicken sales have been largely affected in only those areas where the flu occurred, but there has been little national impact on demand.