# 1552
As if culler's jobs weren't dangerous enough, in West Bengal they are now making nighttime raids in order to apprehend chickens and ducks being hidden by their owners.
While it may be difficult for many of us in the United States to comprehend, many people in India and Southeast Asia treat chickens and ducks as more than just a food source, but as family pets. Demanding to cull them not only takes an important food and income source away from very poor families, it also robs them of a family friend.
Imagine if this disease were a disease of dogs or cats, and authorities were going house-to-house looking to cull Fluffy or Spot. I suspect you'd see similar reluctance on the part of pet owners here in this country.
India swoops on homes in night raids to halt bird flu
Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:35am GMT
By Bappa Majumdar
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Veterinary staff in eastern India are capturing chickens in night-time raids on the backyards of homes to surprise villagers unwilling to part with their poultry as an outbreak of bird flu spread.
Bird flu has spread to 13 of West Bengal's 19 districts, with samples of dead chickens testing positive in two new districts, officials said on Monday. In neighboring Bangladesh, the disease has spread to 29 of the its 64 districts.
Experts fear the H5N1 strain found in both countries could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person, leading to a pandemic, but there have been no reported human infections in India yet.
"It is very difficult to contain the virus among backyard poultry as villagers hide their chickens and even smuggle it to homes of distant relatives," said Anisur Rahaman, the state's animal resources minister.
Officials said they were worried about the disease spreading to the crowded state capital, Kolkata, after bird flu hit the South 24 Parganas district on Sunday, only 20 km (12.5 miles) away from the city.
Surveillance was in place to stop infected poultry from being smuggled into one of India's biggest cities, they said.
Authorities also used loudspeakers and distributed leaflets in villages, urging people to hand over poultry to culling teams.
Villagers say government compensation of a dollar a bird was not enough.
"It's not just money, it is such a sentimental issue as villagers keep ducks and chickens as pets and also have different names to call them," Nazrul Islam of the West Bengal Poultry Association said.
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