WB govt bans chicken sales for now

The West Bengal government has allayed fears of bird flu infection among humans but as a precautionary measure, imposed a ban on the sale of poultry across West Bengal for an indefinite time period, said Anisur Rahaman, animal resources minister, West Bengal.

The poultry owners would incur heavy loss.

"Our chief minister will meet the Prime Minister and the agriculture minister in this regard, to seek additional funds for compensating the loss," the minister said.

Earlier, the state had announced the ban for three months while culling operations ended in all the 16 bird flu affected districts of the state.

Mop-up operations would continue for a day or two, a senior official of the West Bengal health and family welfare department informed.

The decision will impact a large population dependent on the poultry business.

According to Kajal Dutta, president of Kolkata Egg Merchant Association, "This is a big economic setback for us, but the situation is out of our hand. We cannot keep selling eggs at the cost of lives of other people. At the same time, lakhs of families dependent the trade will be reduced to rags. The big businessmen will survive, while the small growers will die of hunger in this state."

The total value of unsold eggs, lying with the whole sellers and in cold storages, will be close to Rs 2 crore, he said.

If the ban was not lifted in week or so, the eggs would have to be destroyed, said Dutta.

The association will approach the government for loans and compensation, he said.

All the 23 human blood samples collected from the disease-affected areas, including five samples of members of the culling teams, have tested negative.

"While no cases of human infection have been reported, there is a possibility that the disease might spread to humans, so we have imposed the ban", the minister said.