House To House Inspections In India For Sick People, Dying Birds

Indian health officials, wearing masks, gloves and full body protection suits, started house to house searches for sick people and dying birds on Monday.

Famers burned more than 200,000 dead chickens at deserted poultry farms around Navapur, some 250 miles from Bombay.

A 27 year old owner of a poultry farm died after showing bird flu-like symptoms. Tests will soon reveal whether he had the virus.

The masked health inspectors who 'raided' homes around Navapur checked hundreds of people for signs of the virus and insisted all chickens kept in yards at private homes had to be killed and disposed of.

Locals told media it was like being in a war zone. Checkpoints now block all roads in and out of the district, to prevent people smuggling poultry.

Some 50 farms in district are now being emptied of all poultry stocks, with almost a million birds expected to be slaughtered, and the farms will be closed for up to three months.

India exports more than $80 million worth of eggs and poultry to Europe, Japan and the Middle East each year. Losses for the Indian poultry trade are expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars from this first massive outbreak alone.

IN GERMANY HUNDREDS OF TROOPS WERE BROUGHT IN TO DISPOSE OF DEAD WILD BIRDS IN AN EFFORT TO CONTAIN THE VIRUS

BIRD FLU RETURNED TO MALAYSIA, KILLING AT LEAST 40 CHICKENS OVER THE WEEKEND. THESE WERE THE FIRST REPORTED CASES OF THE H5N1 VIRUS IN MALAYSIA FOR MORE THAN A YEAR.

ON TUESDAY, A DEAD MAGPIE FOUND NEAR A PUBLIC MARKET IN HONG KONG WAS CONFIRMED AS HAVING DIED OF THE VIRUS, THE LATEST IN A STRING OF BIRD FLU RELATE BIRD DEATHS

IN NIGERIA, THE H5N1 VIRUS HAS BEEN FOUND IN THE NORTHERN STATES OF KATSINA AND ZAMFARA. FIVE NIGERIAN STATES NOW HAVE THE VIRUS. NO HUMAN INFECTIONS HAVE BEEN REPORTED.

WITHIN THE LAST TWO WEEKS, THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES HAVE REPORTED DETECTION OF THE H5N1 VIRUS IN FARMED POULTRY OR WILD BIRDS :
FRANCEGERMANYGREECEITALYSLOVENIA

AUSTRIA

HUNGARY

BULGARIA

ROMANIA

CROATIA

AZERBAIJAN

RUSSIA

TURKEY

UKRAINE

BULGARIA

EUROPEAN CHICKEN FARMS REPORT CONSUMPTION OF POULTRY PRODUCTS HAS PLUNGED ACROSS EUROPE. LOSSES SO FAR EXPECTED TO TOP $500 MILLION. EU AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER SAYS CONDITIONS NOT SERIOUS ENOUGH, YET, TO WARRANT COMPENSATION ARRANGEMENTS FOR POULTRY FARMERS.