H5N1 Continues to Spread In Bangladesh
Recombinomics Commentary 12:43
February 19, 2008
The outbreak at Omega farm showed the disease was out of control, industry officials said.
"Omega is one of the top farms which rigorously maintained international bio-safety regulations but it was not spared by the deadly flu," said M.M Khan, a senior official of the Bangladesh Poultry Association.
"The situation is so bad nobody is buying any poultry these days. They're panicking. The crows and migrant birds are spreading the flu everywhere, leaving authorities simply hopeless," Khan said.
The above comments describe the continuing spread of H5N1 in Bangaldesh (see satelite maps here here here). In addition to the massive cull in Dhaka involving the Omega farm described above, new culls are announced daily. In the latest report, the number of culled farms has risen to 277. It was 97 on January 16. Thus, the number of farms has almost tripled in the last month over the number of farms culled in the first 10 months of the outbreak. The number of districts with confirmed H5N1 rose from 23 to 43 in the same period.
As noted above, wild birds also contribute to the spread, raising serious questions about the lack of reported outbreaks in neighboring countries, including regions in India other than West Bengal.
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