Avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu virus and also called A (H5N1) infection, has so far claimed only one victim in Bangladesh till January this year after local detection of the virus, while about 386 people from 63 countries across the world have been killed by similar types of infections.
Around 70 persons have recently died in China alone in the running attack of the virus.
The information was disseminated at a workshop arranged by Department of Livestock (DLS) on ‘Avian influenza infection in Bangladesh context’at the auditorium of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Centre (BARC) at Farmgate in the capital yesterday.
Fisheries and Livestock Minister Mohammad Sayedul Haque, who was also present at the workshop, said the virus could not hit the country hard due to pre-cautionary measures taken by the government in last five years.
The minister also said the poultry sector must be protected from the disease as the government wants to improve this important sector that is meeting the country’s demand for protein.
The DLS’s director Dilip Kumar Ghosh in his keynote paper said the bird flu infection was first detected in the country on March 22, 2007, and seven infection cases in humans were recorded, while the virus was found in 498 commercial poultry farms and 57 family farms.
The government had distributed compensation of around Tk366.5m for culling 2.7m chicks and destroying 3.1m eggs in this period. The affected owners of family farms received a compensation of Tk111.5m and the owners of 722 commercial farms got Tk 255m, the director said, adding that the figure increased due to destroying the farms round the infected ones.
Dilip Kumar Ghosh also said national reference laboratory on avian influenza has already been established in Dhaka and two laboratories in Chittagong and Jessore and he urged to the government to establish disease diagnosis centers in each district.
State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Narayan Chandra Chanda, Secretary ShelinaAfroza and Director General of DLS Shahidul Islam also addressed the workshop among others.
