Bangladesh Slaughters 150,000 Birds After Worst H5N1 Virus Outbreak In 5 Years

An anonymous reader writes in with news about a bird flu outbreak in Bangladesh. "At least 150,000 chickens and 300,000 eggs have been destroyed at a giant poultry farm near Dhaka in Bangladesh after the major outbreak of avian flu was detected last week, officials said Wednesday. This season's bird flu outbreak was the worst in five years. Officials at Bay Agro at Gazipur detected the deadly H5N1 flu strain 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Dhaka on Monday after dozens of birds died, which had prompted the poultry company to send samples to a laboratory for testing. 'There are about 150,000 chickens at the farm. We have already killed and destroyed 120,000 chickens and we will kill the rest today,' livestock department director Mosaddeq Hossain said, according to AFP. Hossain said that it was the worst avian flu outbreak in five years."

Comments

Re:there will be a sudden uprise in weddings...

[ryzvonusef]

Um, just to clarify, this is south asia we are talking about, not europe or us or other place with strict slaughter control. We have already have trouble catching meat that came from bloated animals (they pump water in the arteries to fatten up the meat...) and meat that comes from already deceased carcasses. Things are bad, here.

So let's revisit the issue. Govt orders a cull. Typically, that means it won't do it itself, just orders one to be conducted by the stock owners. People naturally get afraid, demand drops, chicken prices hit rock bottom.

Cue crazy people taking advantage of falling chicken prices to organise massive weddings. No body knows where the chicken is coming from, is it from the affected stock, is it safe blah blah.

Please don't presume, I have nothing against cheap chicken and weddings. But I know my country, I know just how *diligently* they work. If all the infected chicken had been disposed off in a proper way, then it wouldn't have mattered, because that would have ensured the other chicken was safe, it's only the stigma keeping the prices low. But given our less than amicable control system, you can't be sure of that here.

If people can cheat by bloating and dead-carcassing, you think they wouldn't stoop to a bit of bribery to ensure *their* stock is passed without checks?