Bengal’s combat with bird flu

There are reports that the occurrence of bird flu in Bengal was known in the first week of Jan, but the information was officially let out a week later. This lapse and the subsequent slow approach to limit the spread of the disease to other places are being thought to be lacking the urgency they demand.

There’s no way anyone in Bengal can remain aloof to the possibility of danger the disease poses. The trouble though is that the situation in the state is completely different from earlier instances of bird flu at Manipur and Nandurbar in Maharashtra.

A look at the following TT schematic makes it clear (image source) why it is so.

In Bengal, poultry farming is the source of income for millions, a livelihood that comes just after cultivation. In many village homes ducks and hens share the same space with their owners, and there simply are no separate enclosures for the birds.

For these people the birds are their main source of income, and so it is very difficult for them to part with the birds especially when it is not certain how they are going to earn their means the next day.

For the government the task of meeting the challenge of containing the disease is enormous. It has to spread awareness among the poor, mobilize trained personnel to collect and cull the birds, and distribute relief to those who loose the birds.

The fourth action is perhaps the most important. The health department persons from the government have to keep strict vigil to watch out for any fatal outbreak anywhere, whether among other birds, animals like pigs, or humans.

Since this is the breeding season for migratory birds assembling on every large waterbody in the winter, this poses yet another dimension to the already overloaded work schedule.

On top of all these is the game of politics. Later this year the panchayat elections are due in the state. Anyone who has even a small inkling of what it is like will know how bitter the elections for local bodies in Bengal become.

With that in mind, it was no surprise that the ruling party was initially in 2 minds on how to go about. Now it seems there is some progress.

According WHO experts, home-bred ducks are the actual source of the H5N1 virus, carrying it from the migratory birds from the water in which they all swim. The problem is ducks usually show no outward symptoms of having contacted the virus even as they spread it among the hens and chickens, and later, if not controlled, to pigs and humans.

Meanwhile, the WHO is also thinking that the ultra-rapid spread of the virus in Bengal may after all be to the account of a new kind of H5N1 (ABP, Jan 25, pg 10). To know that for sure will need lots of research.