Indian health workers urged villagers at the centre of a bird flu outbreak to stop dumping dead fowl in ponds, as ignorance about the virus hampers efforts to contain its spread. The eastern state of West Bengal, where the latest outbreak of bird flu has been reported in poultry, was to cull 400 000 chickens in a week, but officials said the task may not be completed in even a fortnight. In many of the quarantined villages, bare-chested villagers in cotton wraparounds picked dead birds with their hands and dumped them in ponds, increasing the risk of the virus spreading. Health and veterinary staff used loudspeakers in Margram village, the epicentre of the outbreak, to ask people not to dump dead birds in ponds and watertanks and report deaths in poultry. "People's ignorance has compounded our problems and delayed culling of birds," Anisur Rahaman, West Bengal animal resources minister, told Reuters. Volunteers told villagers, most of them uneducated and poor, of the dangers of the virus and the precautions to be taken. At places, smiling children were seen holding up dead birds with bare hands for television cameras. Many villagers continued to refuse to hand over their poultry to veterinary staff for culling, saying the government compensation of a dollar a bird was not enough. "There is a chance of contamination of water and the virus affecting other bird species," a state health official said. More than 40 000 birds and poultry have died in the latest outbreak, the fourth in India since 2006. Fortunately, no human infection has been reported so far. With reports of more bird deaths coming from new areas in West Bengal, officials fear the virus could have spread beyond three infected districts now. At some places, hawks and other birds have dropped dead from the sky. Most of West Bengal's border with Bangladesh has been sealed after the H5N1 virus spread to poultry in 25 of that country's 64 districts. Chicken and egg sales have dropped in West Bengal. Neighbouring states have banned its poultry products and army kitchens in the region have stopped serving chicken. SOURCE: IOL NEWS