The act of culling

Bird flu spreads to more farms in Bangladesh

GG2.NET NEWS [24/03/2007] Health workers carry away dead chickens from a poultry farm near Dhaka BIRD FLU has spread to six poultry farms near Bangladesh`s capital, the government said yesterday (March 23), sparking a nationwide alert. The United Nations also expressed concern. CS Karim, the government adviser for agriculture and livestock, said among more than 42,400 poultry on the six farms in Savar, over 12,000 had died and another 21,000 had been culled over the past few days. The H5N1 avian flu virus has not spread to other areas of the country and there was no cause for panic, he told a news conference. Savar is 25 km north of the capital. Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol, representative of UN`s World Health Organisation in Dhaka, said, "We are very concerned because this is a highly densely populated country where people, animals and poultry live very close". "The government has taken aggressive measures to stop the spread of the disease and that WHO has confidence it (the government) would be able to limit the spread," she told the same news conference. The disease was confirmed through tests by laboratories in Bangladesh and Thailand, the government said late on Thursday (March 22). Another UN official also expressed concern. "Maybe the outbreak of avian flu started in the country weeks or months before but the authorities took a long time to confirm it." "We are talking to the government and relevant agencies to find out the extent of the spread of H5N1 in Bangladesh," the official said yesterday (March 23). They asked not to be identified.