SBS: India Begins Mass Fowl Cull

[PhilipShore]

Special Broadcasting Service
India Begins Mass Fowl Cull
20.2.2006

http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=127387®ion=2

Health officials in India have started culling hundreds of thousands of chickens in a bid to prevent the spread of the bird flu, amid fears the virus has spread to the subcontinent, after new cases were discovered in France and on the German mainland.

Up to half a million chickens are expected to be slaughtered near the small town of Navapur, in the western state of Maharashtra, where the virus was detected.

Officials in the district of Nandurbar on Saturday said 50,000 birds died last week.

All birds within an eight-kilometre zone are being culled, and those within 15 kilometres are being vaccinated.