August 20, 2009

Bangladesh still faces the risk of further outbreak of bird flu as 50 percent of the country's national poultry flock is backyard poultry, said the World Bank (WB) on Wednesday (Aug 19).

WB said the South Asian country has a large duck population (about 39 million) and is visited annually by about 21 species of migratory birds in the winter months that can carry the virus.

These coupled with the fact that Bangladesh has a high population density, has made the country, along with Egypt and Indonesia, one of the three international hot spots for bird flu. Bangladesh continues to remain a high risk country for bird flu outbreaks, it said.

According to reports, the virus has been identified in specimens from 48 of the all 64 districts in Bangladesh and the last but one outbreak was reported on June 9 this year in a new district.

Given these considerations, WB and the Bangladeshi government has decided during the midterm review of the 'Avian Influenza Preparedness and Response Project (AIPRP)', that the WB would continue to support the project in a revised scale.

The project is co-financed by the WB and Avian and Human Influenza Trust Fund (AHITF), started its operation since October 2007 and is expected to be closed in December 2012.

The WB, working closely with other development partners, aims to further synchronize with and complement the activities of other donors, to focus on highly pathogenic bird flu surveillance, awareness campaigns, training, strengthening of laboratory capacity and containment of the virus.