Health workers slaughtered more poultry in eastern India on Sunday as state officials worked to contain fresh outbreaks of bird flu, according to AP. Authorities ordered the slaughter of some 600,000 birds, mostly chickens, after bird flu was confirmed in five districts in the state of West Bengal. Authorities were still awaiting test results to determine whether it was the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has been blamed for the deaths of at least 218 people worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. No human cases have been reported in India, despite two previous H5N1 outbreaks among birds. WHO said the current outbreak is the most dangerous India has faced. About 100,000 birds have been slaughtered in recent days, but health workers are facing resistance from farmers because they believe the government isn't adequately compensating them. «The villagers in many places consider the poultry as part of their family and do not want to part with them,» said Anisur Rahman, the state's animal husbandry minister. A mob of farmers in one of the worst-affected areas attacked five officials after health workers slaughtered their chickens, said Biplab Ojha, a local official. The officials sustained minor injuries, and there were no arrests. The H5N1 virus has afflicted more than 60 countries since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in 2003, forcing the slaughter of hundreds of millions of birds worldwide. It remains hard for people to catch, but experts fear it may mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.
