Ban on poultry to be lifted in most areas of WBengal on Wednesday

With the situation in birdflu-hit districts of West Bengal improving, the state government has decided to withdraw the ban on sale and transport of poultry and poultry products from tomorrow even as fresh deaths of chicken was reported from Jalpaiguri district.

It was decided to lift the ban, imposed on February 5, from tomorrow after a high-level meeting considered that there was no fresh outbreak of bird flu, no case of human infection or fresh death of birds anywhere in the state in the last few days, Animal Husbandry minister Anisur Rahaman told reporters today.

The ban would, however, remain in 11 blocks each in worst-hit Birbhum and Murshidabad districts and in a municipality in Birbhum, he said.

Poultry farming, however, could not be taken up in any of the affected notified areas in the next three months, he said.

Around 1.50 lakh poultry birds had died of avian influenza in the state, Rahaman said, while 38 lakh or a little over six per cent of the total poultry in the state, were culled.