Bangladesh on Saturday ordered a ban on the import of pet birds as part of a precaution against avian flu, a government minister said. Earlier, Dhaka banned the import of poultry from 18 Asian and European countries, although Bangladesh has never had a reported case of bird flu.
"Though there is no report of avian flu in the country, we have also banned import of pet birds as precaution against the spreading menace," Fisheries and Livestock's Minister," Abdullah Al Noman told Reuters. Bangladesh's $900 million poultry industry employs nearly 5 million people on about 150,000 farms, officials said.
Farmers are being counselled to keep their farms clean and to destroy their birds in case of an outbreak, they said.
Bangladesh has also asked forest officials to monitor migratory birds, due to start flying in soon from as far as Siberia, and warned against hunting or eating them.
Bangladesh imports 2 million parent and 25,000 grand-parent chicken stocks from the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, France, United States and Canada, traders said.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003. Scientists fear outbreak of the virus could mutate into a form that could pass between humans and lead to a global pandemic. Bangladesh does not have any stock of anti-bird flu vaccine or drugs. "But we are trying to collect them," Noman said without giving details.
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