Sittwe: The recent outbreak of bird flu in Sittwe Township in western Burma's Arakan State has brought great losses for the local poultry farmers as they had to cull thousands of their birds, said one affected farmer.

The farmer told Narinjara that he is unable to save his business after all the chickens from his farms were taken by the authorities in the culling.

"All 4,000 chickens, worth about ten million kyat, were taken from my farm and culled by the officials. So far, I have not gotten any compensation from the authorities and now it is very difficult for me to restart my business," said the farmer.

Officials from the local health and municipal departments have culled thousands of chickens from the poultry farms in the area after finding a strain of the H5N1 virus, also known as the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza - HPAI virus at a farm in Bumay Village in Sittwe Township on 12 January 2011.

"As my farm is near the village hit by the flu, all of my chickens have been wiped out by the officials even though they were uninfected. The farms in other nearby villages also faced the same fate and an estimated 50,000 birds from both infected and uninfected farms have been culled by the authorities," said the farmer.

Another farmer reported that most of the affected farmers are facing a loss of their livelihood as authorities have neglected to even provide loans, much less compensation, to help them recover from the loss.

"There is no compensation or loans being provided by the authorities to the farmers. It is like we had to suffer according to our fate. Apart from this, we have to pay the officials for anti-virus sprays on our farms and for culling the chickens, and now we are facing the ruin of our business," he said.

According to a local veterinarian, the virus is now under control as health officials have been closely monitoring the farms in the area after culling the affected birds.