Costs of HPAI outbreaks in West Bengal, India

During the recent outbreaks of HPAI in West Bengal about 6.65 million poultry have been culled until 23 January (Government of India (GoI) 23 January 08). Many households derive income and food from poultry keeping and especially women are in charge of this. The affected poultry keeping households have not only lost the value of their chicken and ducks, in addition they may lack this income source for several months. Though compensation is paid it only partly covers the losses arising from losing their poultry by culling. This document reports on HPAI outbreaks in West Bengal up to January 2008.