The New Nation - Internet Edition

PEOPLE have been enjoying a relieved feeling that perhaps the health threat from bird flu had ended. This was from lesser reporting of incidences of avian flu attacks. Thus, sale of poultry birds and eggs are noted to be on the rise again. But a major attack of the flu was reported in a northern district on Sunday. This created concern afresh that time is not ripe to feel that the country has become free from the flu to the extent that different stakeholders in the poultry business can afford to lower their safeguards.

The main solution relied upon to tackle the threat remains the killing of the sick birds. The poultry sector has emerged in a big way in recent years employing about 3.5 million people. It currently adds a value worth some Taka 50 billion or $833 million to the GDP. Worldwide, the mainstream practice is to cull the poultry population on detection of the disease. The practice has led to ruination of poultry sectors in China, Thailand and some other countries where large scale culling was carried out.

Bangladesh should try the best preventive methods in the first place to stop its poultry farms from being infected by the H5N1 virus so that culling is not required. Vaccination, not tried by many countries, may be tried. Italy reportedly experimented with vaccination of poultry birds and it proved to be a success. So experience of Italians can be shared for widespread preventive use in the poultry farms. The vaccine is cheap and would not be a burden for poultry farmers. The poultry farms should be enabled to detect signs of the disease and prevent its spread. Officials should train the poultry farmers on such surveillance. Such training needs to be extended also to households which raise backyard poultry.