Chickens being sold in Chakvrigu. A Telegraph picture

Balurghat, Jan. 16: There was no sign of culling outside the state-owned poultry farm here today, 24 hours after a Bengal government directive ordering it.

This, despite the fact that culling of poultry around the core areas of the outbreak and intensive surveillance, including a ban on the sale of chickens in the affected places, are essential to contain avian influenza. The number of poultry birds to be culled in South Dinajpur is estimated to be around 28,000.

Tests carried out at the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal and the National Institute of Virology, Pune had confirmed the outbreak of H5N1 or the bird flu virus in the state farm. In the past one month, 350 birds have died here.

Sources in the animal husbandry department here had said yesterday that 49 teams have been formed to fan out throughout the district. The teams have been entrusted with the task of buying poultry from owners within a 5km radius of the farm for culling. Around Rs 35 lakh has already reached the district for this purpose.

Sritanu Maity, the deputy director of animal resources development in the district, denied that his department’s attitude could at best be described as irresponsible.

“We are not sitting idle. We need a day to prepare the groundwork. We have not carried out campaigns within the 5km radius to prevent chicken-sellers from selling their stock elsewhere on the sly. We want to catch them unawares,” Maity said.

The official also said an intensive drive against the sale of chickens will start from tomorrow.

In Balurghat town, there was no sign of the existing ban. Chicken was being sold in Chakvrigu, 150m from the district magistrate’s office and within a 2km radius of the farm. According to WHO norms, all birds within 3km of the core area of an outbreak must be culled.

Sujit Dutta, the assistant commissioner of animal husbandry at the Centre, arrived here this afternoon to oversee the culling as well as the preventive measures.

“The situation is under control and there is nothing to worry about,” Dutta claimed. In the state farm here, almost 90 per cent of the surviving 1,444 birds had been culled by evening.