India gears up to tackle new bird flu outbreak

The latest cases of the lethal H5N1 bird flu strain announced late Tuesday were in Jalgaon, said senior state animal husbandry official Bijay Kumar.

The site was 140 kms from the initial outbreak reported February 18 in the town of Navapur, also in Maharashtra.

The new outbreak came as the national government published advertisements in newspapers assuring consumers properly cooked poultry products were safe to eat.

Chicken is a staple meat for Indians as pork and beef are often avoided due to religious beliefs. But after detection of the flu virus, chicken and egg sales plummeted, badly hurting the poultry industry.

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar urged people to stay calm.

Upma Chowdhry, an agriculture ministry official, said most of the latest birds affected were backyard poultry, in contrast to the first outbreak which was concentrated on chicken farms.