Agartala: Worried at the frequent outbreak of bird flu and its effect on the poultry industry, the Tripura government has decided to urge the Central government to send special expert-teams to study the sporadic resurfacing of the contagious disease, an official said here Saturday.

“Sporadic outbreak of bird flu has been badly affecting the poultry industry in the north-eastern States, bordering Bangladesh, where avian influenza is rampant in many districts,” Animal resources development department director Manoranjan Sarkar said.

The government has declared four villages in Sunsari and Jhapa districts in eastern Nepal as bird flu affected.

AGARTALA: Bird flu has been detected in a government owned poultry farm at Gandhigram, about 18 km from here.

In the last 15 days, three workers from one of the markets came down with the flu; however, they have recovered.

After a lull of many months, swine flu infection has reared its head again.

Bird flu or avian influenza is threatening Bihar's poultry industry and an SOS has been sent to the central government on tackling the deadly H5N1 virus as the state lacks the resources to do so, a Bihar minister said.

The SOS was sent after the Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) attributed the deaths of a number of crows across the state to the H5N1 virus, Animal Husbandry Minister Giriraj Singh said.

Bird flu experts meeting in Geneva have ruled that controversial research on a mutant form of the virus potentially capable of being spread among humans should be made public.

Security assessments must however be carried out first before the two studies can be published and the research can continue, scientists agreed at a two-day meeting at the WHO.

Thought bird flu was gone?