Twice-bitten -- will Bengall never learn?

It seems nothing can make the state government adhere to Central guidelines issued in November, 2006, not even the latest Bird Flu outbreak in north Bengal.
 
After the Centre confirmed that Jalpaguri district was the latest to have fallen to Bird Flu, it emerged that the city-based Regional Disease Diagnosis Laboratory (RDDL) had delayed sending the Jalpaguri samples to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal by three days in violation of Central guidelines.

Senior officials of the state animal resources development (ARD) department said the delay could well cause the virus to spread. They said that since the RDDL had neither the authority nor the infrastructure to run necessary tests, the samples should have been sent to Bhopal on receipt of them on 20 March, especially in view of the successive outbreaks.

The Centre's guidelines clearly state that district ARD officials should visit the place where unnatural deaths of birds are reported at the earliest and not later than 24 hours to collect samples. Following collection, the samples should be sent to Bhopal within 24 hours.

When contacted, ARD deputy director AG Bandopadhyay, who is in charge of RDDL, said: “Only the director of ARD can comment.” ARD director Dilip Das said: “I can confirm that the samples had been sent (to Bhopal) on 23 March but can't say off hand on which date those had been received. We generally screen the samples before sending them to Bhopal.”

The Jalpaiguri ARD department will start culling chickens at Mondalghat gram panchayat in Sadar block of the district from tomorrow after samples from the district tested positive for Bird Flu. Jalpaiguri DM R Ranjit said 50,000 chickens would be culled in a 5-km radius of the affected Shonpukhuri Saheber Khamar village.

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