VZCZCXRO3850
OO RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCI #0035 0291156
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 291156Z JAN 08
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1852
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA IMMEDIATE 0079
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE USD FAS WASHINGTON DC
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUEHRN/USMISSION UN ROME IMMEDIATE 0009
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEIDN/DNI WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2265

UNCLAS KOLKATA 000035 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PLEASE PASS CDC - BLOUNT AND COX AND HHS - STEIGER AND HICKEY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KFLU TBIO EAGR CASC SENV ECON ETRD PGOV IN
SUBJECT: AI IN W. BENGAL - SITREP 12 
 
REF: KOLKATA 32, KOLKATA 30 AND PREVIOUS 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY:  With new districts like South 24 Parganas, 
Howrah and West Midnapur officially added to the AI-infected 
list, the GOWB revised its culling target to 2.7 million. 
Reports of cullers walking off the job in the Birbhum district 
received coverage in the press.  Municipal authorities in 
Kolkata's Salt Lake neighborhood imposed a ban on poultry trade 
as a "precautionary" measure.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) With new districts like South 24 Parganas, Howrah and 
West Midnapur notified on January 26 and 27 for culling, the 
GOWB revised the culling target to 2.7 million. Around 2 million 
birds have been culled through January 28.  At present, 1,014 
RRT teams are working in West Bengal's 13 AI-affected districts. 
 As of January 26, 1.5 million people have been checked under a 
community level fever surveillance program.  Approximately 3,600 
people were found suffering from fevers.  Biological samples 
taken from 17 people were tested for avian influenza from the 
following districts as of January 27: South Dinajpur (7), 
Murshidabad (2) and Birbhum (8). No suspected case of human 
avian influenza has been detected so far. 
 
¶3. (U) On the night of January 27, about 180 culling personnel 
stopped work in Rampurhat in Birbhum district - which first 
reported the outbreak and is one of the worst-affected areas - 
and deserted their posts the next morning without informing 
their supervisors.  A senior ARD official said the culling teams 
were completely exhausted from the grueling work they had been 
doing over the last 13 days.  Recent rains apparently damaged 
the cullers' makeshift living quarters.  Compounding the problem 
was that in some villages, cullers were coming under pressure 
from local community leaders to inflate the number of birds 
culled, possibly in a bid to obtain more compensation from the 
GOWB.  Replacement culling teams have reached Rampurhat, and 
culling is expected to end by January 30. 
 
¶4. (U) Buying and selling of poultry has been prohibited in 
Kolkata's Salt Lake neighborhood (approximately 8 kilometers 
from downtown Kolkata), although there have not been reports of 
poultry death.  Salt Lake municipal authorities imposed the ban 
as a precautionary measure to stop poultry from the adjoining 
South 24 Parganas district from entering the municipal area. 
Although municipal authorities in Kolkata have not imposed a ban 
on poultry trading within the city, the state government has 
imposed restrictions on the movement of poultry into the city 
from the districts.  Post contacts at Kentucky Fried Chicken 
(KFC) outlets in Kolkata reported a "significant" drop in sales, 
but KFC has not stopped sourcing chicken from Arambagh 
Hatcheries, which is located in Kolkata. 
 
JARDINE