The administration has strengthened its efforts to put a control over the recent “bird flu” (or avian influenza) epidemic in West Bengal as well as Assam.

As per the report issued today by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the steps taken by the government in order to verify the epidemic in West Bengal include deployment of 328 animal health workers who have achieved culling of a total of about 32,000 poultry birds up till now.

The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India, notified the bird flu eruption in Englishbazar block in Malda region of West Bengal earlier this month.

Moreover, the early announcement of the flu in Assam came on 27 November in Hajo block of Kamrup area.

Since then, 12 other epicenters of the viral activity have been notified by the department in Assam alone, where the government has deployed about 471 health workers who killed around 4,00,000.

Avian Influenza or bird flu is an illness caused by an influenza virus, which lives inside birds.