Typical agriculture sectors like animal production and processing, aquaculture and its processing, and fruit and vegetable processing, can be water-intensive and generate complex and sometimes severe pollution.
The intensity of bird flu has lessened all over the country with no major outbreak reported during the last one week, officials and poultry industry people claimed.
A country-wide campaign for the registration of poultry farms has been launched with an aim to provide maximum security against birds flu outbreak. Animal Husbandry Commissioner Dr R.H. Usmani said that according to an estimate there were about 25,800 poultry farms producing large scale as well as small scale poultry products like meat, eggs and poultry breeding. He said that the campaign was initiated in all four provinces including AJK which will collect data about the status of all farms existing at district level and he added that work on the project has been initiated from Peshawar. Dr Usmani informed that a number of Rapid Response Teams consisting three doctors with highly trained, fully equipped staffers were also increased from 18 to 23 to control any outbreak of bird flu around the country. He said that these teams will also provide proper education to farmers about safety and security measures including vaccination of birds and adoption of safety measures for workers, working inside the farms. Animal Husbandry Commissioner said this campaign will help the ministry to provide proper compensation to affect farmers registered during current practice. All those farms who failed to register itself during the campaign would not get any compensation in case of any outbreak. Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2008
About 25,369 chickens infected with bird flu were culled and 2,372 eggs were destroyed at eight farms in three districts in the last two days. With the culling, the total number of culled chickens rose to 1084,473 while the number of destroyed eggs stands at 1,458,967 since February 2007. Bird flu control room sources said the number of affected farms will start falling rapidly as temperature begins to rise. At least 11,383 chickens were culled and 2050 eggs were destroyed at National Hatchery Pvt Ltd of Akhter Hossain Babul in Gazipur on Wednesday night, bird flu control room sources said. A total of 9,575 chickens were culled and 200 eggs were destroyed at Aqua Land Agro complex of Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan at Savar after avian influenza virus was detected at the farm. Besides, 776 chickens were also culled at another farm at Ashulia. Meanwhile, 295 bird flu infected chickens were culled and 122 eggs were destroyed at a farm in Natore on Tuesday night. Besides, about 3,340 chickens were culled at four farms in the district.
about 50 heads of livestock, mostly cattle, died in the last week of January after drinking water from a stream in the Ghaggar Union Council of Bin Qasim township on the outskirts of Karachi in
Participants in a seminar in Sylhet on Tuesday stressed the need for growing awareness of bird flu among the countrymen. The World Conservation Union, a voluntary organisation, with the help of UNICEF organised the seminar, styled
Culling of fowls in bird flu affected areas in the country continued with 20,185 chickens slaughtered and 49,507 eggs destroyed yesterday in Dhaka, Satkhira and Kishoreganj. As of yesterday, a total of 9,88,916 chickens have been culled and 12,21,143 eggs destroyed since February 2007 after the disease hit the country. The livestock officials slaughtered 1,432 chickens at MS Agro Farm of Mahbubul Haq at Kamlapur village of Birulia under Savar yesterday after the deadly disease was detected there, the bird flu control room sources said. Our Satkhira correspondent reports: At least 2,970 chickens, 100 ducks and 52 pigeons were culled and 309 eggs were destroyed at six poultry farms in village Magura of Sadar upazila last night after the presence of avian influenza was confirmed at a farm. District Livestock Officer Deb Narayan Roy said they collected samples of some dead chickens from Star Poultry Farm on Friday and sent those to Dhaka for test where the presence of deadly bird flu virus was detected. Eight teams from the District Livestock Office conducted the culling in Magura village and the 1 square kilometre adjoining area with the help of law enforcers and upazila administration. Meanwhile, at least 16,020 fowls were culled in the early hours yesterday at a farm at Kishoreganj sadar upazila following the detection of avian influenza virus, reports our Kishoreganj correspondent quoting the District Livestock Office (DLO) sources. So far, a total of 37,020 fowls had been culled in the district after the deadly disease broke out, the DLO sources said. District Livestock Officer Nurul Islam and Upazila Nirbahi Officer Shahnewaj Dilruba Khanam were present during the culling of the chickens at Aqua Culture Agro-based Fishery and Poultry Farm owned by Khaled Saifullah Shohel at the Beruail village. Talking to The Daily Star, the distressed farm owner said that while each chicken cost him over Tk 350 to rear it to the present egg-laying stage, the government is providing only Tk 96 per chicken as compensation. He would suffer a loss of around Tk 50,000 due to this, he added.
FOWLS and eggs have dropped off the household menu due to heightened incidence of bird flu. Many restaurants, especially the wayside food vending shops are suspected to be selling curry made of cheaply bought off sick chicken to poor consumers. Due to their initial denial mode, the authorities failed to take timely precautions. The spread of avian flu has overtaken the livestock department's containment measures. Thus we face a fully blown crisis. There are a few ways in which we have been hard hit: first, the rather affordable source of protein in a market boiling over with highly priced mutton, beef and fish, the nutrient intake among the poor and middle income groups has touched a new low. More seriously, in the last one year, the poultry industry has sustained losses of at least Tk 4100 crore owing to outbreak of avian influenza, on and off -- thanks to poor surveillance and monitoring. This has had ominous ramifications on the rural economy in particular and the national economy in general. As it is, livestock took a severe battering from two successive floods followed by cyclone Sidr last year. As though that was not enough of a blow to the rural economy we now encounter the fallout of bird flu. Poultry industry has been a fast developing sector with bank loans and micro-credits funneled into it fostering a whole range of medium and small enterprises. Millions of people are dependent on the poultry industry, either by employment or through wholesale and retail networks. We can suggest three specific steps to revitalise the industry. First and foremost, bank loans on concessional rate of interest should be given to poultry farmers. Secondly, those who had taken loans from the banks their repayment must be rescheduled. Last but not least, the consumers need to be sensitised about cooking fowls and eggs in temperature above 70 degrees centigrade which makes it safe for consumption. Insofar as handling chicken is concerned gloves and masks need to be used. There seems to be a flurry among poultry industry owners in seeking bank loans and compensations. We must be able to separate the chaff from the grain and provide support to the eligible ones.
The government is to announce a poultry policy aimed at ensuring a hygienic, well-managed and sustainable industry. "We are framing the policy to enable the industry grow under regulations. It's at a final stage. We are hopeful to make the policy effective from the next month,' said Sunil Chandra Ghosh, director general of Department of Livestock Services. Earlier, a committee comprising representatives from private sector and the government framed a draft policy. The draft of the policy titled 'National Poultry Development Policy, which focused mainly on commercial poultry farming, is going to be announced after about seven years. The initiative to formulate the policy was taken in 2001. Under the policy, commercial poultry farms will be required to get registrations. The farms must not be set up in densely populated areas. The draft policy has also fixed the minimum distance between two commercial farms. Moreover, no commercial farm can be set up within two kilometers of grand parent stock and parent stock producing farms. The farms must ensure hygiene, the draft policy said. To assess the demand and supply for day old chicks in local market, the government will develop a database by receiving production related information from the public and private breeding farms and hatcheries. Moshiur Rahman, convener of Bangladesh Poultry Industries Co-ordination Committee, said the database will remove the inconsistency in production of poultry chicks. "In absence of any production and supply related data, sometimes production surpasses the demand while sometimes poor supply push the prices of day-old chicks up due to supply crunch,' he said. The government is going to finalise the policy when the country's Tk 8,000 crore poultry industry is struggling to survive in the aftermath of bird flu that led to closure of thousands of farms. Operators hoped the policy will help put an end to the trend of setting up of poultry farms indiscriminately. According to the policy, a Livestock and Poultry Quality Assurance Institute will be established. sohel@thedailystar.net
Since heat destroys the H5N1 virus that causes bird flu, threat to birds and humans is expected to diminish with a rise in mercury level as the summer comes closer. These views were expressed by Dr Faisal Mehmood, Assistant Professor at Infectious Diseases Department of Aga Khan University Hospital, in his presentation at the PMA House on Saturday. He said that avian virus did not affect humans until 1997 when an outbreak of bird flu infected 18 people and caused six deaths in Hong Kong. Since then, human cases of bird flu had been reported in different parts of the world, including Asia and Europe, he added. "Most cases were traced to be in contact with infected poultry or bird-contaminated surfaces,' he said, adding that avian influenza virus often originated in areas where people live in close proximity to chickens. Dr Mehmood observed that an outbreak of bird flu was not as big a risk for general public as for the poultry workers. It could be controlled by culling the infected birds. However, he warned that available research did hint that the virus could mutate at some point in the future and trigger a lethal human flu pandemic. He elaborated that H5N1 mutated quickly and was able to incorporate large blocks of genetic code from viruses that infected other species, a process called re-assortment. For that reason, he said, H5N1 had particular potential to combine with a human flu virus, creating a new viral strain that was feared to spread rapidly from person to person. Under all conditions the most practical precaution effective at preventing a repeat of the dreadful bird flu history of the past could be hand hygiene, he stressed. "Over 90 per cent of viruses like bird flu enter our bodies through contact between the mucous membranes of eyes, nose and finger nails,' he said. The speaker mentioned that the exact incubation period of bird flu in humans was not clear though illness appeared to develop within one to five days of exposure to the virus. People fell sick after direct contact with infected birds or bird-contaminated surfaces and not from contact with other animals, he added. He regretted that a very few people were aware of the possible risk factors though the reported human cases of avian influenza included people from all ages. When asked about its treatment, he said no effective vaccine could be developed till bird flu virus mutated and the patients were prescribed antiviral drugs and antibiotics. He stressed that improved public amenities like running water and improved hygiene could be the first and most practical line of defence against killer viruses like the bird flu. Earlier, PMA Karachi General-Secretary Dr Samreena Hashmi introduced the speaker and highlighted the objectives of the session.
