MUSCAT/Kolkata, Jan 19: Oman has banned the import of all poultry and poultry products from India and Iran, the state news agency ONA said on Saturday, after outbreaks of avian influenza in those countries.

The report gave no official reason for the ban.

Veterinary workers began killing thousands of chickens in eastern Indian on Wednesday after what the World Health Organisation (WHO) said was the worst outbreak of bird flu in the country.

The outbreak in West Bengal was the fourth in India since 2006 and presented the country’s toughest challenge yet.

Iran has also found the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in ducks and geese in the north of the Islamic Republic. No human cases were reported, local media said.

H5N1 is the bird flu strain that scientists fear could mutate into a form easily passed among humans. Iran first reported H5N1 in wild swans in the north in 2006.

Oman, on the south-eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, lies across the Gulf from Iran and has an Indian Ocean coast and traditional trade ties with both countries.

Meanwhile, bird flu spread to two new districts in an eastern Indian state, officials confirmed on Saturday, as veterinary staff struggled to cull thousands of birds in the face of resistance from farmers.

The H5N1 virus was found in dead birds in Burdwan and Nadia, taking to five the number of infected districts in West Bengal state.

The virus was also spreading to new areas within already infected districts.

India, which is witnessing its fourth bird flu outbreak in poultry since 2006, has not reported any human infection.

Officials said they were immediately extending culling operations to the newly-affected areas. West Bengal began culling over 400,000 chickens and ducks in three districts this week.

So far, only about 50,000 birds had been culled.

“This news is indeed distressing and we are looking to intensify culling in both districts from tomorrow,” Anisur Rahaman, West Bengal’s animal resources minister, said.

But containment efforts continued to be hampered because farmers insisted that their chickens and ducks were healthy and refused to hand them over for culling.

Scant respect for hygiene among poor and illiterate villagers was also a stumbling block, said veterinary volunteers who collected dead birds dumped in village wells and ponds by villagers ignorant about the risks from the H5N1 virus.

Rahaman asked health workers to intensify an awareness drive. Health workers were watching for people with flu symptoms in the affected areas.

The virus has killed more than 45,000 chickens and birds in West Bengal in the past two weeks.

The World Health Organis-ation (WHO) has called the outbreak of avian flu among poultry in the densely populated eastern state of West Bengal the worst the country has faced partly because it is more widespread.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee called the situation “very serious”, while officials reported villagers were throwing chicken carcasses into rivers and ponds, increasing risks of the virus spreading.

Bird flu has been confirmed in three districts of West Bengal where 85,000 poultry have died from the disease, the federal government said in a statement.

Fresh bird deaths were reported from another three districts and laboratory officials were analysing the dead poultry, the statement said.

“More serious risk factors are associated with this current outbreak than (the two) previously encountered... the affected areas are more widespread and because of the proximity to extended border areas,” the WHO said.

West Bengal borders Bangladesh, which is has been suffering since last February from an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain that analysts fear could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people.

—Agencies