Thursday, March 16 2006 12:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The bird flu outbreak among chickens in Jalgaon, the second such incident in Maharashtra in about a month, is unlikely to be the last, a senior Union Health Ministry official warned here today(Mar16, 2006).

Maharashtra is likely to witness several such outbreaks in the coming weeks because thousands of birds that were infected during the first outbreak in Nandurbar had been illegally shifted to other places in the state instead of being culled, the official said on condition of anonymity.

"We have evidence that the shifting took place with the patronage of some politicians," the official told sources , adding "Such shifting will have surely created fresh hot spots of infection in other places in the state that can flare up anytime."

According to the official, while nine lakh birds were officially claimed to have been culled, the cullers could actually account for only 2.9 lakh birds.

"It is obvious that early six lakh birds, many of them possibly infected, had been taken away to other places," he said.