Cii Radio| Ayesha Ismail| 24 January 2017| 25 Rabi ul Aakir 1438
More than 700 Sonali breed birds die after highly contagious H5N1 virus is discovered at Dhaka farm.
Bangladesh reported an outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus at a poultry farm in Dhaka, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday, citing a report from the Bangladeshi agriculture ministry.
Of 3,000 Sonali type poultry at risk from the outbreak, 732 died from the virus and the rest were slaughtered, according to the report posted by the Paris-based OIE.
The farm was located in Dhamrai, a division of the capital city of Dhaka, the report said.
Different strains of bird flu have been spreading across Europe and Asia since late last year, leading to mass culling of poultry in certain countries and some human deaths in China.
This prompted the World Health Organization to call on all countries on Monday to monitor closely outbreaks of the deadly virus in birds and poultry and to report promptly any human cases that could signal the start of a flu pandemic.
Source – Al Jazeera
File Photo – A child collects eggs from a van carrying chickens at a wholesale market in Dhaka [Andrew Biraj/Reuters]
