May 21, 2007

Bird flu spreads in northern Bangladesh

Bird flu continues to spread in Northern Bangladesh as about 1,500 poultry were culled last Friday (May 18).

The bird flu outbreak was discovered in a village in the Nilphamari region.

This is the second bird flu outbreak reported in two weeks.

The culled fowls include 1,100 chickens and 400 ducks and pigeons, livestock office officials said.

The samples were sent to Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute at Savar in Dhaka for testing on Tuesday and results confirmed on Thursday.

Livestock offiials went to the affected village at the same night to cull poultry and continued until Friday. Affected farmers were compensated.

Locals said some 400 to 500 chickens, ducks and pigeons died at Berubon of an unknown disease in the last two weeks.