Bird flu hits India as Turkey, Indonesia detect cases

By Bappa Majumdar

KOLKATA, India, Jan 22 (Reuters) - An outbreak of bird flu in India's most densely populated state could spiral out of control, officials said on Tuesday, as the disease spread to a seventh district.

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was found among poultry in Malda, infecting seven of the 19 districts in the eastern state of West Bengal, according to state officials.

"There is every chance of the virus spiralling out of hand if it's too late," said Sanchita Bakshi, the state health services director.

At least 24 million people live in West Bengal's seven affected districts. Officials worry the virus could spread to humans and were collecting random blood samples from villagers.

The World Health Organisation has said it was India's most serious outbreak.

Nepal, meanwhile, banned the import of poultry products from neighbour India, as authorities in Bangladesh culled thousands of chickens after the virus spread to Natore district.

Experts say the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person, leading to a pandemic.

In Indonesia, which has the highest human death toll from bird flu, a 30-year-old man has tested positive for disease, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

He had been admitted to a hospital in the capital Jakarta suffering from a fever, breathing difficulties and pneumonia.

The new case brings the number of people in the Southeast Asian country who have tested positive for the disease to 120 -- of which 97 have died.

Elsewhere, Turkey confirmed the H5N1 bird flu strain among dead chickens in a village in the northern Black Sea region.

Muzaffer Aydemir, a senior agriculture ministry official, said on Tuesday Saz village in Zonguldak province was placed under quarantine with all animal movements halted.

He said the surrounding area was disinfected, and no other cases had been reported so far.

Turkey lies on the migratory route for wild birds flying south from Scandinavia and Siberia to north Africa for winter. The country was hit hard by a bird flu outbreak in the winter of 2006, which hurt tourism and damaged the poultry sector.

TOO LATE?

In India, central government authorities confirmed H5N1 infections in two of West Bengal's seven districts, based on tests from the country's central animal disease laboratory. But state officials say the other cases are all the same strain.

"The concern is why did the disease which was initially reported in only two districts spread to other areas," Pradeep Kumar, India's animal husbandry secretary said in Kolkata.

"We are now trying to ensure that it should not spread to neighbouring states including the northeast," he said after a meeting with health officials on Tuesday.

But, the helplessness of West Bengal officials was clear.

"I don't have Tamiflu medicines and ready manpower at the moment,' said Chittaranjan Das, a top official in Malda, the latest district to be hit by bird flu in the eastern state.

"We need time to carry out an awareness drive in villages before we start culling poultry," he told Reuters.

Villagers in West Bengal blamed the state government for not informing them about the hazards of bird flu as dozens admitted roasting dead birds and eating them. The virus is usually passed on through close contact with infected birds and their faeces.

Nearby states have banned import of poultry from West Bengal and were checking chickens for bird flu. Scientists said infected birds may have been smuggled out of the affected districts.

A week after the first blood samples from dead chickens tested positive for bird flu, the West Bengal government has now raised the culling target to 2 million.

However, only 150,000 poultry have been culled so far in the state as health workers have often turned up late for duty.

In Bangladesh, health workers have continued killing birds as the virus spread to 26 of its 64 districts. The country has struggled to contain the H5N1 outbreak since March. (Additional reporting by Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu, Simon Denyer in Patna, Alistair Scrutton in New Delhi, Selcuk Gokoluk in Ankara, Telly Nathalia in Jakarta; Editing by Katie Nguyen)