# 1471
Preliminary reports stated that chickens have been dying for 10 days in the Birbhum district of West Bengal. Although samples have reportedly been sent to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal, no results have been released.
Nonetheless, the West Bengal government has been put on bird flu alert.
This from The Times of India.
Centre tells WB Govt to prepare plan to check bird flu
14 Jan 2008, 2125 hrs IST,
SURI(WB)/NEW DELHI: Amidst fears that the death of a large number of poultry in West Bengal's Birbhum district may be due to an outbreak of bird flu, the Union Health Ministry on Monday said it is sending an advisory to the state to start an action plan.
A team of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) will be visiting the affected areas soon to get a preliminary report and collect samples, NICD Director Shiv Lal said.
A report from Suri, West Bengal said a bird flu alert has been sounded in two blocks of Rampurhat sub-division in Birbhum district after thousands of home-bred chickens died in the past week.
Union Health Secretary Naresh Dayal said in Delhi that the ministry has already sent large doses of the preventive Tamiflu drug to the state.
"Samples of the dead birds have been sent to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal. The final report has not come yet, but there is an indication that it may be bird flu," he said, adding that parallel samples have also been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune.
"If and when we get a confirmation that it is bird flu, that is the deadly H5N1, we will declare an outbreak," he said.
"We are issuing an advisory to the state that they should prepare themselves to take action," he added.
Dayal said that the ministry would be undertaking a human surveillance also
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