Bangladesh News

Kalu Mia opened his cash box, reached into it and brought out a “protective” mask which is made of a flimsy piece of cloth. “See… I have a mask,” he said showing the thing he bought for Tk 5.

Chicken trader of Karwan Bazar Kalu never used the mask. When asked about gloves, he answered with a question, “What are those?” People from a private chicken farm voluntarily come and spray disinfectants in the shop every day but no government officials come, said Kalu Mia sitting in front of a number of healthy-looking chickens yesterday.

The unawareness of Kalu Mia is not an isolated thing and most involved in the poultry sector do not know how to protect themselves and others from bird flu while some are just careless.

Officials of the Directorate of Livestock said bird flu is spreading mostly by physical contact with infected birds. Even people could get infected with it if they are not careful while handling infected poultry.

“We are sure that the bird flu is not an air-borne disease. People or birds are carrying the germs from one farm to another,” said Dr Salehuddin, director administration of Directorate of Livestock. “We are not sure what other ways it is spreading… it could be by water or poultry feed,” he said, adding that, “If we knew we could stop it.”

Asked why they were not ensuring that people who handle fowls take proper bio-safety measure, Dr Salehuddin said it is the duty of other agencies. In the capital, the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is monitoring bio-safety measures at all the kitchen markets, he said.

The DCC provided plastic barrels at 50 kitchen markets to dump dead chickens and chicken wastes.

Even though Special Assistant to Chief Adviser for Livestock Ministry Manik Lal Samaddar distributed gloves and masks yesterday at the chicken wholesale market of Tejgaon, nobody was using them.

This correspondent made a visit to the Tejgaon wholesale kitchen market after Manik Lal Samaddar had left and found not a single person wearing masks and gloves. Traders were seen grabbing, slaughtering and skinning chickens with their bare hands. Asked why they are doing so, they said they are not “accustomed to” using them.

“We found 912 chicken traders in the city. We provided 2,000 pairs of gloves and masks,” an official of the Directorate of Livestock who accompanied Manik Lal said.

The special assistant to the chief adviser had requested the poultry traders to maintain the safety measures. He even ate boiled eggs to show people it is safe to eat them if proper procedures are followed.

Abdul Hakim, a veteran chicken vendor, was seen selling chicken at Monipuripara yesterday holding a number of chickens in his hand.

Asked about masks and gloves, Hakim said he did not know what they were.

“Inshallah, nothing will happen to me,” said Hakim when warned about bird flu that he is vulnerable to the infection if he is not careful.

So far 271 farms in 78 upazilas of 43 districts have been infected with the virus and a total of 6,83,357 chickens were culled till yesterday.