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BIRD FLU

Govt to ban import from 4 more countries

PINAKI ROY
The government has decided to ban import of chicks from four European countries -- Turkey, Greece, Romania and Russia, where bird flu has broken out recently.
“We are going to impose a ban on import of chicks from those four European countries as outbreak of avian flu is reported there,” said Md Abdul Karim, secretary of fisheries and livestock ministry.
However, the decision will have no impact on the poultry industry in the country as chicks are not generally imported from the four countries and the stock of chicks here will meet requirement for about six months, said Syed Abu Siddique, the secretary general of Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association.
Last year the government banned import of chicks from 13 Asian countries after the disease broke out in the region.
Following the warning of UN agencies, the government two days ago instructed the upazila livestock officials to monitor and check the killing of migratory birds.
“We have instructed our livestock officials. We will request the home ministry to check the netting and selling of wild birds,” said the fisheries and livestock secretary.
Until recently, the outbreak of avian influenza was limited to the poultry of some southeastern countries, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and China.
But since late July 2005, High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus H5N1 has spread in the northwesterly direction and both Russia and Kazakhstan are reported to have outbreaks of bird flu in poultry as well as in wild birds.
Some of those birds are currently nesting in the newly HPAI-affected areas of Novosibirsk and Altai in Russia and will migrate to this region, including Bangladesh, to stay during the upcoming winter or to rest on their way to Africa and Europe.
Being a densely populated country situated on one of the major migratory bird routes, and a harbour of domestic ducks, Bangladesh is vulnerable to the avian influenza, agency reports say.
The FAO website says Bangladesh has the potential to become a new large endemic foci of H5N1 infection.
Experts think the government should take proper steps to prevent the killing of wild birds. Different
kinds of waterfowl, including bar headed geese, great black headed gulls, brown headed gulls, ruddy shell ducks, and great cormorants, are the carriers of H5N1 that causes HPAI and may spread the virus when they come to Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, open selling of wild birds was observed yesterday in Elephant road and Panthapath in the city.
If the avian influenza is transferred to the human body from wild birds, the trappers, traders and hunters will be the first victims, experts say.
“Selling of wild bird heron proves that wild bird traders and trappers are active. They will start trapping wild ducks, which carry the avian influenza virus, as soon as the birds land here,” said bio-diversity expert Prof Anwarul Islam.
“We need to send all forest officials and law enforcers to the field so that nobody can catch the wild birds. A central cell regarding it should be formed,” he said, adding that the good will of political leaders is also needed to tackle the avian influenza problem.
Like the trappers and traders of wild birds, poultry farm workers are under the risk of avian influenza but the farm owners are not taking any precaution against it, experts say.
“As we don't have any vaccine in our country, we are not taking precaution. The government has banned importing chicks from the bird flu victim countries and we think we are comparatively safe,” Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association Secretary General Syed Abu Siddique said.