April 5, 2010

Bird flu situation stablises in Bangladesh

The bird flu situation in Bangladesh has remained stable with significantly less outbreaks reported during 2009 and 2010, the World Bank said Sunday (April 4).

However, the bank said the country still faces the risks of further outbreaks as it is probable that the virus exists in dormancy in the country, as 50% of its national poultry flock is backyard poultry.

Bangladesh has a large duck population (about 39 million) and is visited annually by about 21 species of migratory birds that can carry the virus, the bank said, adding these coupled with the fact that the South Asian country has a high population density, contributes to building up the threat of future bird flu outbreaks.

Bangladesh's authorities last month culled about 154,245 chickens so far this year following fresh outbreak of bird flu. Of the total, according to the government's disease-control office, some 117,000 chickens of a commercial farm in the country's northwestern Thakurgaon district were culled in the first week of March after detection of bird flu.

According to reports, the Bangladeshi government has initiated the "Avian Influenza Preparedness and Response Project (AIPRP)", co-financed by the bank and Avian and Human Influenza Trust Fund, since October 2007 to address the threat posed by the virus to humans.

It has been suggested that a contract be signed with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to have technical and other supports for brining pace in implementation.

Reports also said that uninterrupted continuation of the ongoing surveillance activities in 260 sub-districts, and carrying out a co-ordinated training programme for various stakeholders also remains top priorities at this phase of the project implementation to contain the outbreak of the virus.

The virus H5N1 was first detected in Bangladesh in a poultry farm near capital Dhaka in March 2007. The situation deteriorated later as the virus spread fast across the country with cases reported in 47 districts between December 2007 and March 2008.

About 50% of the country's 150,000 poultry farms were closed and more than 1.5 million chickens, ducks and pigeons were culled as of the end of March 2008 in which the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association estimated a loss of about BDT75 billion (US$1.08 million).