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Fresh bird flu scare grips poultry sector
Govt urged to launch vaccination drive in farms
Sunday October 19 2008 00:58:34 AM BDT
A fresh bird flu scare grips the country?s embattled poultry industry after detection of avian influenza virus in a northern district farm two weeks back. Industry leaders have said the government is unprepared to prevent the disease from spreading.
and rattling the sector like it did last year, throwing many small and marginal farmers out of business.
Most of these farms, which were victims of massive culling of fowls, are still struggling to return to business amid complaints that the government forgot about many of the pledges like bank loan rescheduling facilities and due compensations.
?The government is yet to facilitate vaccination in the poultry sector to keep the virus away,? said the managing director of Kazi Farms Group, one of the leading poultry farms in the country.
Kazi Zahidul Hasan said the government continued to ignore the early warning from the World Health Organisation and its advice for taking steps for vaccination.
Veterinary officials confirmed bird flu in a poultry farm in Naogaon on September 29, the first case since the last one detected in a Tangail farm four months ago.
?The detection indicates that the virus is still active and may spread to other places,? chief veterinary officer and director of the Department of Livestock Services Salehuddin Ahmed said.
Moshiur Rahman, general secretary of Breeder?s Association of Bangladesh, alleged that the government so far did nothing to eradicate bird flu other than arranging some training programmes for officials.
Small and marginal farmers, who were left with empty firms and bank loans after a massive culling spree, are yet to get any fresh funds despite the government?s assurance, he regretted.
The government had also promised to arrange loan rescheduling facilities for six months and due compensation for the affected farms to help them recoup last year?s losses and restart business.
?Small farmers are left out and the whole poultry business has fallen into the hands of big players, and prices of egg and poultry meat have continued to go up,? Moshiur said.
Khondoker Mohsin, joint secretary general of Bangladesh Poultry Association, said, ?The government gave only Tk 90 for a culled layer bird, which costs a farmer about Tk 350 for five months? rearing until it starts producing eggs.?
Farmers were also denied compensation for birds, which died before the final diagnosis, he said.
?I have lost everything of my poultry business. I got a compensation of only Tk 11 lakh against my investment of Tk 60 lakh, while the interest on bank loans accrued to around Tk 12 lakh?, said Sajeda Sadeque, a woman entrepreneur whose some 16,000 layer birds were culled.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Poultry Association has taken up some programmes on its own to prevent bird flu from entering the Dhaka city. The six-month programmes include spraying anti-virus drugs at 14 exit points surrounding the capital city and keeping the city?s 25 wet markets clean.
The association also initiated bio-security improvement programme in poultry concentrated areas like Gazipur, Savar, Barisal, Khulna and Bogra.
The first outbreak of avian influenza was detected on February 22 in 2007 and the virus was later confirmed in 288 farms under 47 districts in Bangladesh, leading to culling of 16,37,606 chickens in 548 farms. The industry estimated a loss of about Tk 4,500 crore from the disease.
Only one human case of avian influenza was found so far, and the disease was confirmed long after the infected boy was cured.
Even then the news of bird flu outbreak leads to serious health scare and scares poultry consumers off in a country where per head protein consumption is much lower than required for good health, industry leaders said.
Govt urged to launch vaccination drive in farms
Sunday October 19 2008 00:58:34 AM BDT
A fresh bird flu scare grips the country?s embattled poultry industry after detection of avian influenza virus in a northern district farm two weeks back. Industry leaders have said the government is unprepared to prevent the disease from spreading.
and rattling the sector like it did last year, throwing many small and marginal farmers out of business.
Most of these farms, which were victims of massive culling of fowls, are still struggling to return to business amid complaints that the government forgot about many of the pledges like bank loan rescheduling facilities and due compensations.
?The government is yet to facilitate vaccination in the poultry sector to keep the virus away,? said the managing director of Kazi Farms Group, one of the leading poultry farms in the country.
Kazi Zahidul Hasan said the government continued to ignore the early warning from the World Health Organisation and its advice for taking steps for vaccination.
Veterinary officials confirmed bird flu in a poultry farm in Naogaon on September 29, the first case since the last one detected in a Tangail farm four months ago.
?The detection indicates that the virus is still active and may spread to other places,? chief veterinary officer and director of the Department of Livestock Services Salehuddin Ahmed said.
Moshiur Rahman, general secretary of Breeder?s Association of Bangladesh, alleged that the government so far did nothing to eradicate bird flu other than arranging some training programmes for officials.
Small and marginal farmers, who were left with empty firms and bank loans after a massive culling spree, are yet to get any fresh funds despite the government?s assurance, he regretted.
The government had also promised to arrange loan rescheduling facilities for six months and due compensation for the affected farms to help them recoup last year?s losses and restart business.
?Small farmers are left out and the whole poultry business has fallen into the hands of big players, and prices of egg and poultry meat have continued to go up,? Moshiur said.
Khondoker Mohsin, joint secretary general of Bangladesh Poultry Association, said, ?The government gave only Tk 90 for a culled layer bird, which costs a farmer about Tk 350 for five months? rearing until it starts producing eggs.?
Farmers were also denied compensation for birds, which died before the final diagnosis, he said.
?I have lost everything of my poultry business. I got a compensation of only Tk 11 lakh against my investment of Tk 60 lakh, while the interest on bank loans accrued to around Tk 12 lakh?, said Sajeda Sadeque, a woman entrepreneur whose some 16,000 layer birds were culled.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Poultry Association has taken up some programmes on its own to prevent bird flu from entering the Dhaka city. The six-month programmes include spraying anti-virus drugs at 14 exit points surrounding the capital city and keeping the city?s 25 wet markets clean.
The association also initiated bio-security improvement programme in poultry concentrated areas like Gazipur, Savar, Barisal, Khulna and Bogra.
The first outbreak of avian influenza was detected on February 22 in 2007 and the virus was later confirmed in 288 farms under 47 districts in Bangladesh, leading to culling of 16,37,606 chickens in 548 farms. The industry estimated a loss of about Tk 4,500 crore from the disease.
Only one human case of avian influenza was found so far, and the disease was confirmed long after the infected boy was cured.
Even then the news of bird flu outbreak leads to serious health scare and scares poultry consumers off in a country where per head protein consumption is much lower than required for good health, industry leaders said.
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