Chickens roam about in the backyard of a house in Poinikumari on Friday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, May 9: The Darjeeling district administration today confirmed an outbreak of bird flu in a village 22km north of Siliguri, almost two months after the H5N1 virus was detected in neighbouring Jalpaiguri.

Poinikumari in Kurseong subdivision is 60km from Sonpukur and Saheber Kamath villages of Jalpaiguri, which was affected.

In Poinikumari, 283 chicken have died since April 27. “Once we came to know about the deaths, medical teams from the animal resource development (ARD) department were dispatched. Samples were first sent to the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Calcutta and then to High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal. The Bhopal laboratory has confirmed that the samples have tested positive for bird flu,” said Rajesh Pandey, the district magistrate of Darjeeling.

The report from Bhopal arrived this afternoon and last deaths were reported on May 4. This is the first time that the bird flu has been reported in Darjeeling district ever since the state was plagued by the communicable disease about six months ago. Besides Jalpaiguri, the virus had been detected in three other north Bengal districts— South Dinajpur, Cooch Behar and Malda.

“We have identified three panchayats under Siliguri sub-division and one in Kurseong where culling operations will begin tomorrow,” Pandey said.

Ten villages each under Sukna and Patharghata panchayats, five under Atharokhai panchayat and nine in Lower and Upper Bagdogra panchayat will be covered for culling in the next three days.

“We have formed 25 teams, which will cull 18,000 poultry birds,” said Pandey. He had convened a meeting at the circuit house today, which was attended by Mani Thapa, the sabhapati of Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad and officials of ARD and the district administration.

“No case of humans contracting the disease has been detected so far. I will also hold a meeting with the poultry traders. Selling of chicken and eggs within a 10km radius of the affected area will be banned till the culling is completed. The announcement will be made after a meeting with poultry traders tomorrow,” the district magistrate said after the meeting.

The district administration has also opened a control room at Pintail Village, 4km from here. The affected areas are within a 10km radius of Pintail.

Laxminarayan Banerjee, the deputy director of the Siliguri ARD department, said farmers would get Rs 40 for layers, Rs 30 for broilers and Rs 10 for chicks as compensation.