The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The country is struggling to combat avian influenza as the Government yesterday confirmed that the H5N1 virus had spread to another district.

The new outbreak was found in Chandpur, but the Livestock officials said the spread of bird flu had slowed across the country in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, around 10,000 poultry birds were culled and 30,000 eggs destroyed at Jagtha village in Pirganj upazila in Thakurgaon from Saturday night to yesterday morning after detection of avian influenza virus.

The Project Director of the Livestock Department said, "At the advent of spring we are getting few reports about poultry dying. But the situation is now mostly under control."

Nearly 970,000 birds have been culled since the virus was first detected in March last year, threatening the impoverished the country's growing poultry industry.

At least, 0.5 crore of the country's more than 14 crore people are directly or indirectly involved in poultry farming, of whom officials estimate around 0.15 crore have now become jobless.

The disease has badly hit the country's annual around Tk 12,420 crore poultry industry. Bird flu has caused losses of about Tk 450 crore to the poultry sector, said the officials.

No human bird flu cases have been reported in the country till now.

Experts feared that the H5N1 strain could mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic, especially in countries such as Bangladesh where people live in close proximity to backyard poultry. Humans usually contract the virus only after close contact with infected birds. The virus has killed more than 230 people worldwide since 2003.

Our Thakurgaon correspondent said 10,000 poultry birds were culled and 30,000 eggs destroyed at Jagtha village.

The local livestock officials said the fowls and the eggs of a farm owned by Rafiqul Islam were destroyed in presence of the officials of local administration and law enforcers.

The detection of H5N1 virus was confirmed in the sample collected from the farm on Friday. The officials imposed ban on buying and selling of domestic and poultry fowls and eggs in the area for next 90 days.

They also banned transportation of domestic and poultry birds and eggs within one-kilometer radius of the village to prevent the spread of the virus. The Livestock officials already started spraying germicide on the vehicles at six points of the district, according to the local sources.