Jan. 24: The number of bird flu-affected districts in the state today remained stationary at nine, but the Centre has ordered Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa to impose a complete blockade on the entry of poultry from Bengal.

District administrators in the neighbouring states have been asked to ensure strict vigil, sources said. “There’s no evidence yet of the bird flu virus in any of these states, but we don’t want to take any chances,” a source said.

“We don’t want to see any poultry movement across the borders — neither in truckloads nor on bicycles,” a senior official said.

According to another official, the Bhutan government has told the Indian embassy in Thimphu that it would no longer accept poultry from India. Nepal has already banned the import of poultry products from India.

The Union health ministry said seven teams were helping authorities in Bengal examine people in five districts — South Dinajpur, Birbhum, Murshidabad, Nadia and Burdwan.

Thousands of people have been tested in these districts but no suspected case of bird flu has been detected.

“Many people have been found with respiratory infections, but none so far with symptoms that can be classified as suspected avian influenza,” an official said.

However, in Birbhum, seven animal health workers have been found medically unfit and given anti-viral treatment.

All staff involved in culling and human surveillance activity are taking daily doses of oseltamivir, the anti-viral drug that works against influenza viruses.

State animal resource development minister Anisur Rahman said 938 rapid response teams culled over three lakh chickens today. “We had culled over seven lakh birds till yesterday,” he added.

Panic gripped Jalpaiguri, where at least 350 birds have died since yesterday in three different places. “We have decided to cull birds within 3km of any area found to be affected by the H5N1 virus,” Banamali Roy, the sabhadhipati of the Jalpaiguri zilla parishad, said.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today spoke to Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and urged him to speed up the despatch of funds to rehabilitate villagers who had lost their poultry.

“We shall shortly prepare a rehabilitation package and send it to the Centre for approval,” Rahman said.

The state government has spent Rs 8.5 crore on culling operations so far and a matching amount is expected from the Centre.

The minister said culling was over in South Dinajpur and all diseased birds would be destroyed in Burdwan and Bankura tomorrow. In Hooghly, which was declared flu-hit yesterday along with Cooch Behar, 4,000 chickens were culled today.

Chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb said the current target of culling 20 lakh birds would be met by January 30. “The rapid response teams need to locate the poultry, convince people to hand over birds for culling and pay the stipulated compensation,” he added.

Villagers in some parts of the state continued to resist flu-fighters.

In Malda, residents of Bistupur surrounded a culling team’s car and forced it back. “They would have set fire to our car had we stayed there for long,” said Sutapa Mukherjee, a member of the team.

Culling was delayed in Chanchol, too, where villagers demanded compensation matching the market rate of chickens before the outbreak.

“Those who are resisting culling are flirting with danger. We will force them to hand over their birds tomorrow,” Malda district magistrate Chittaranjan Das said.

Culling in Nadia’s Tehatta was stalled for over two hours after villagers alleged that rapid response teams had killed birds by smashing them against walls. District officials intervened and brought things under control.