Fisheries and Livestock Minister Mohammad Sayedul Haque has said the poultry sector must be protected from the avian influenza infection.
“The government wants to improve the most important sector which is providing proteins for the country,” said the minister.
He also instructed the officials to take necessary precautionary measures for protection from infections.
The minister was addressing a workshop on avian influenza infection in Bangladesh’s context at the Department of Livestock on Thursday.
He said the government has already taken some measures to ensure that the avian infection cannot hit Bangladesh.
Around 386 persons from 63 countries died after being infected with the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus from last 2003, according to the data presented at the workshop.
Of them, around 72 people died in China while one person died out of identified seven cases in Bangladesh from that time.
DLS’s director Dilip Kumar Ghosh mentioned in his keynote paper that the avian infection was found in Bangladesh on March 22, 2007. The infection was found at 498 commercial poultry farms and 57 family farms around the country.