The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

Due to attack of bird flu, health and nutrition experts are now surmising a nutritional crisis as people of all income groups depend on poultry products to meet their required demand for protein, minerals and vitamins.

Prof Shah Mohammad Keramat Ali, Professor Clinical Nutrition Department of Nutrition and Food Science Institute of Dhaka University, said, "People of almost all income groups, including the poor, eat the poultry product egg, which is an important source of protein, essential vitamins and minerals and makes a significant contribution to a healthy diet." "They will be deprived of these cheap sources of protein, minerals and vitamins if the bird flu spread is not checked right now. It is really unfortunate for us that we as a poor nation might be the great loser of protein that we collect from eggs," said Prof Keramat.

The virus of bird flu easily spreads through affected fowls, their eggs, faeces, egg crates and even vehicles that are used to transport poultry products to markets. It can spread during slaughtering, plucking, processing and preparation of the poultry for cooking, according to the veterinary surgeons.

As part of the adverse effect of bird flu, it decreases the nutritional status of the country's poor people. Egg-protein is of high biological value as it contains all the essential amino acids needed by the human body, according to the nutritionists.

Prof Keramat said, "Eggs contain most of the recognised vitamins with the exception of vitamin C. It contains most of the minerals that the human body requires. In particular, eggs are an excellent source of iodine, required to produce the thyroid hormone and phosphorus, needed for bone health."

The egg provides significant amounts of zinc, important for wound healing and growth and fighting infection, selenium, an important antioxidant and calcium, which is needed for bone, growth of structure and nerve function.

Professor Nazmul Hasan, Director of Nutrition and Food Science Institute of Dhaka University, said, "In terms of nutritional status, Bangladesh is facing deficiency of protein, iron, minerals and vitamins. My work experience in community nutrition says that scores of people depend on low priced eggs and chickens."

Poor people also depend on chicken, as the price of beef and mutton is higher. They might face difficulties in getting this food that fulfils the demand of high proteins required for health, he said.

"At the moment, we have to take extreme precautions because the fast spreading virus may transmit to human beings. In the case of human infection, it is quite difficult to differentiate the avian flu from the regular seasonal flu. But there is a 90 per cent chance of full recovery if anti-viral medicine is applied within 48 hours of being infected with the H5N1 virus," said epidemiologists.

To prevent the bird flu, World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that meat be cooked thoroughly so all parts of the meat reach an internal temperature of 70 degrees Celsius as this temperature destroys the virus.

Prof Khurshid Jahan, Professor of Clinical Nutrition of Nutrition and Food Science Institute of Dhaka University, suggested eating pulse with rice and vegetable for a balanced diet required for healthy life.