Fresh outbreak of bird flu has been detected in Bangladesh as winter season comes and the authorities have so far culled nearly 10,000 chickens in five districts, Xinhua quoted a senior government official as saying. Muhammad Salehuddin Khan, Director of Bangladesh's Fisheries and Live Stock Department, told Xinhua on Tuesday, "We have detected avian influenza, known as H5N1, in four commercial farms and a household in five districts so far this month." "Some 9,950 birds of the farms and the household and nearby areas of the country's western Natore, central Gazipur, eastern Narsingdi, and northern Gaibandha and Kurigram districts were culled this month," he said. "We have taken special steps to stem outbreak of the disease asking farmers to adopt more preventive measures," he said. Muhammad said his department is yet to confirm the sources of fresh attacks of the disease, "but it may be due to germs of bird flu remained as we faced huge outbreak last winter." However, he said there is no report of human infection of the disease in Bangladesh till to date. The avian influenza virus was first detected in a poultry farm near capital city Dhaka in March 2007. The situation deteriorated later as the virus spread fast across the country with the H5N1 virus outbreaks reported in 47 out of the country's total 64 districts between December 2007 and February 2008. About 50 percent of the country's 150,000 poultry farms were closed and more than 1.5 million chickens, ducks and pigeons were culled as of the end of March this year. Bangladesh's Health Ministry in May confirmed the country's first human case of bird flu as tests on a 16-month-old girl proved H5N1 positive. The girl recovered after treatment.
