Patna, March 11: The state health department has issued a third alert to all district health officers and civil surgeons to increase the vigil over spread of avian influenza.

The monitoring has been heightened on the instructions of chief minister Nitish Kumar, who held a review meeting last evening with senior officers of the state animal and fish resources and health departments.

At the meeting, Nitish was told about crow deaths in Gaya, Banka, Nawada and Bhagalpur districts, and also about Gaya being the only place where few samples tested positive for the H5N1 virus that causes avian influenza. The chief minister has asked the departments concerned to conduct mass awareness programmes across the state to prevent the transmission of avian influenza to poultry and subsequently to human beings.

“The chief minister has asked us to conduct state-wide awareness programmes using channels like radio, television and theatre to prevent further spread of the virus. He also asked us to continue with our district-wise monitoring of unnatural deaths of crows,” said a senior state government officer who attended the meeting.

According to sources, officers of the animal and fish resources department informed Nitish about the drop in spread of avian influenza in the state in the past few days. “The avian influenza monitoring cell has not received any report of unnatural mass death of crows in the past one week. Moreover, the state is fortunate that the avian flu virus has still not infected poultry. Chances of transmission of H5N1 virus to human beings become very high because of consumption of infected poultry. The possibility of human transmission of the virus in the state is less likely in the next few days, as rise in temperature normally restricts the spread of the disease,” said a senior official.

About help from the Centre, the officer said: “The department on March 1 had sent a request to the central government to send a team of experts or SOS team to Bihar to look into the spread of avian influenza but we have not received any reply till date.”

The state, meanwhile, is taking all possible measures to check the spread of the virus. “After yesterday’s review meeting, we have issued a third alert to our district health officers and civil surgeons to increase the vigil over the spread of H5N1 virus,” said a senior officer of the state health department. It had issued the first alert with regard to avian flu in November last year and the second alert in the third week of February.