# 1807
While the West Bengal government hoped they had eradicated the H5N1 virus during the massive culling operations that took place in January- experience has shown that once entrenched - the virus is very difficult to get rid of.
Authorities are having another go at it in Malda, where recent poultry deaths due to the virus have been reported.
India expands culling zone to contain bird flu
Thu 20 Mar 2008, 10:45 GMT
KOLKATA, India, March 20 (Reuters) - Veterinary staff in safety gear began killing thousands of chickens on Thursday after expanding a culling operation to stop bird flu from spreading in an eastern Indian state.
A fresh outbreak of bird flu was detected in West Bengal state's Malda district where about 1,000 chickens had died in the past few days.
Poultry sales in the eastern state fell by about 70 percent since the avian flu hit in January, officials said, but it has had limited impact elsewhere in the country.
India has not reported any human bird flu cases so far.
Veterinary staff were now killing not only the poultry at the affected farm in Malda but also about 44,000 chickens and ducks in nearby areas to ensure the virus didn't spread.
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