The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The government yesterday confirmed that two more districts in the country have been affected by bird flu as the nation nears its third month of trying to control an outbreak of the virus among poultry.

The deadly H5N1, virus of bird flu, strain was reported in the Munshiganj and Chandpur districts in the past two days, taking the number of affected districts to 45 since January, said an official of the government's bird flu monitoring office.

Nearly one million birds have been slaughtered since the latest outbreak began, he added.

Meanwhile, 10,000 fowls were annihilated and 29,250 eggs destroyed at Jagatha village in Pirganj upazila in Rangpur yesterday following the detection of bird flu virus.

But the Government spokesman Salahuddin Khan said the situation was under control because fewer farms had been affected following a massive cull.

Earlier, an average six to seven farms were affected everyday by the bird flu. Now this week the number has declined to an average of two farms a day," he said.

The country was first hit by bird flu in February 2007 but the disease became dormant. It resurfaced in January when 20 new districts were hit. So far in February another 13 have reported cases, according to the Livestock officials.

Poultry industry in Bangladesh is one of the world's largest, producing 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks annually.

Last week officials of the poultry industry said that the spread of bird flu had led to the closure of 40 per cent of the country's poultry farms and left half a million workers jobless.

Our Rangpur correspondent said after the detection of bird flu in the farm of Rafiqul Islam in Jagatha, Livestock officials and local administration, in a joint drive, culled 9,189 chickens and destroyed 29,250 eggs of the farm.

Later, the team also culled over 500 chickens and ducks of the farms of other villagers located within the one-kilometre radius of the farm.

The local administration imposed ban on selling chickens and eggs for next three months issuing red alert in the area.