DHAKA, 29 January 2004 — Bangladesh denied yesterday any link between the deadly bird flu sweeping Asia and the deaths of 20,000 chickens near the capital, Dhaka, saying the country was free of the illness.
The chickens died on farms in the Gazipur district, 15 kilometers from Dhaka, during the past week.
“Doctors have tested the dead and sick chickens and confirmed it was one of the common illnesses that hit poultry farms during the winter season, not bird flu,” Fisheries and Livestock Minister Ukil Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan told AFP.
He said the situation at more than 100,000 poultry farms in the country was being constantly monitored. Bangladesh was so far free of bird flu, he said.
However, Bangladesh has banned imports of poultry products from countries hit by the disease as a precaution.
An official probe into the poultry deaths was under way, but veterinarians said they believed the chickens were affected by a disease called “Ranikhet” which causes fever and is routinely seen in poultry farms each winter.
Veterinarians said it was also possible the chickens might have been victims of an adulterated vaccine used to protect them against Ranikhet.
The outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed in 10 countries and blamed for the deaths of 10 people.
The World Health Organization has warned that the outbreak could eventually kill millions of people if the most deadly strain of the virus mutates and combines with another human influenza.
The Bangladesh minister said letters had been sent to the Home Ministry and other ministries stressing the need for vigilance in the face of bird flu but did not elaborate.
Newspapers reported that the letter to the Home Ministry requested extra care on the border with neighboring India to avoid chickens being smuggled in without health checks. India has reported no cases of bird flu.
Meanwhile, following a request from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, Bangladesh has put its border police — the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) — on alert to prevent any infected poultry products from entering the country. The BDR has been asked to stop both chickens and eggs from entering the country. The Livestock Ministry suggested that the border police should be kept on alert for the next few weeks. The fear is that though Bangladesh has banned the import of chickens and eggs from eight neighboring countries, they might be smuggled in along the border with India which is 4,300 kilometers long.
“So far, we are on the safe side,” said Fisheries and Livestock Secretary, Iqbal Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury. He said that all precautions had been taken to deal with the situation if an outbreak of flu is reported.
Ministry officials said the government were also testing chickens and eggs imported prior to the ban. There have been no reports of infected chickens in Bangladesh, according to government officials. The Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association said inspections had confirmed that there was no bird flu in the country.
