Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Bangladesh makes progress in fighting bird flu
To combat a serious threat to agriculture and public health, the country first had to dispel conspiracy theories.
By Kamran R. Chowdhury for Khabar South Asia in Dhaka
December 20, 2012 A larger | smaller | reset post a comment
Bangladesh has had recurrent encounters with avian influenza. In the past, the impact was severe -- in part because the issue became politicised.
Instead of tackling the risk, some in the country alleged that global interests were seeking to destroy Bangladesh's burgeoning poultry industry.
"Our [farming industry] leaders told us that the flu did not exist in Bangladesh and the campaign was a pretext to import poultry products from abroad," H. M. Farid Uddin, whose farm in Savar was affected by the flu three times (2005, 2007 and 2010), told Khabar South Asia.
"We spent huge amounts of money to organise seminars to condemn the so-called international conspiracy. But if we had realised the truth early, the damage would not have been so devastating," he said.
Since then, however, attitudes have been changing. Farmers are less suspicious of efforts to contain avian flu, and government campaigns have yielded results.
...
http://khabarsouthasia.com/en_GB/articles/apwi/articles/features/2012/12/20/feature-02
To combat a serious threat to agriculture and public health, the country first had to dispel conspiracy theories.
By Kamran R. Chowdhury for Khabar South Asia in Dhaka
December 20, 2012 A larger | smaller | reset post a comment
Bangladesh has had recurrent encounters with avian influenza. In the past, the impact was severe -- in part because the issue became politicised.
Instead of tackling the risk, some in the country alleged that global interests were seeking to destroy Bangladesh's burgeoning poultry industry.
"Our [farming industry] leaders told us that the flu did not exist in Bangladesh and the campaign was a pretext to import poultry products from abroad," H. M. Farid Uddin, whose farm in Savar was affected by the flu three times (2005, 2007 and 2010), told Khabar South Asia.
"We spent huge amounts of money to organise seminars to condemn the so-called international conspiracy. But if we had realised the truth early, the damage would not have been so devastating," he said.
Since then, however, attitudes have been changing. Farmers are less suspicious of efforts to contain avian flu, and government campaigns have yielded results.
...
http://khabarsouthasia.com/en_GB/articles/apwi/articles/features/2012/12/20/feature-02