Nakhon Sawan (AsiaNews) – Bird flu is spreading throughout western Bengal and is closing in on Calcutta, a city of over 4.6 million people.  A new epidemic has hit northern Thailand, the first since March 2007, while in Vietnam another death has been confirmed.  The H5N1 has already affected 9 of the 19 districts in the populous Indian state of 85 million people, and 5 other districts have confirmed chicken deaths.

State animal husbandry minister Anisur Rehman said, the government had a "long way to go" in culling the targeted two million birds, with only a third of the target achieved - barely 700,000 birds have been culled in the last 10 days, due to the opposition of small farmers in particular the culling of their backyard poultry, the only source of income for thousands of villagers.  Now tests have shown the virus has arrived in the Hooghly district, a little less than an hour by car from the capital Calcutta.  Strict surveillance measures have been put in place but the ministry has admitted that the city “is unprepared” to face such an emergency.  It is believed that contamination has spread from nearby Bangladesh, where the virus is widespread with bird deaths reported on a daily basis.

In Thailand it was announced today that the virus has been found in Nakhon Sawan, 240 kilometres north of the capital Bangkok, where on January 18th last contagion was confirmed in the death of 4 thousand chickens in a poultry farm in Chumsaeng district. Mr. Sakchai Sriboonsue, Director General of Department of livestock Development instructed the owner of the close farm to destroy almost further 60 thousand poultry.  He also gave a watchful scale of 35 villages around the area and keeping the close watch on the workers in the farm. It is the fifth case in the country since 2003.

Yesterday in Vietnam it was confirmed that a 32 year old man died from infection last week in Tuyen Quang province, 80 kilometres North West of Hanoi. On January 9th ducks and geese had died from the virus on his farm.  His was the 48th case of death from Bird Flu in the Country which is the second worst affected state after Indonesia. The virus is present cross many of the State’s province and there is great concern ahead of imminent festivities for the New Lunar Year which begins February 7th and during which it is tradition to eat poultry dishes.