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Bangladesh has banned import of poultry from four European countries to try to prevent an outbreak of bird flu in the country, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdullah Al Noman said on Wednesday, reports Reuters.
The countries are Turkey, Greece, Romania and Russia.
"We have also introduced a monitoring cell and are preparing a project with the help of donor agencies and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to protect our country against avian flu," the minister told the news agency.
Bangladesh last year banned poultry imports from 13 Asian countries after the disease spread through the region.
"We are doing all ground work and we are aware of the (bird flu) panic," Noman said.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003 and has since spread to poultry in parts of Europe.
There have been no reported cases of H5N1 in poultry or people in Bangladesh so far.
But health experts have said Bangladesh should prepare to thwart a possible outbreak of bird flu.
They said bird flu could enter the country either through imported chicks or carried by migratory birds as winter approaches when hundreds of species of birds come from as far as Siberia.
Bangladesh, one of the world's most densely population countries, has about 150,000 poultry farms.
FE Reports add: The government has decided to form a surveillance team to monitor the enforcement of the ban on hunting, selling and transportation migratory birds in the wake of the spread of deadly avian flu in some Eastern European countries.
Under the existing regulation of the forest and environment ministry, the hunting and selling of all kind of guest birds are strictly prohibited and are considered as criminal offence.
However, there has been a gross violation of the rules concerned, especially during the winter season when migratory birds come to Bangladesh from Europe and Siberia.
Besides, the government has also decided to alert the regional and district level offices under the livestock ministry to take safeguard against the spread of the deadly virus.
Bangladesh has already banned import poultry birds from 13 Asian countries, including South Korea, China, Thailand, India and Malaysia.
Experts said the country is least prepared to tackle the onslaught of the bird flu that can take a serious toll on economy and on human lives.
The bird flu virus that has posed threats to economies and human lives in some European and East Asian countries is yet to be prevented.
The country is free from bird flu until now, but its outbreak is only a matter of time as some Asian countries including the Philippines has already been attacked by this avian flu, experts said.
The wild bird flu is more dangerous than the normal avian flu as it cannot be prevented once it spreads as guest birds usually carry such flu and they can fly anywhere in the world.
Stakeholders in the country's poultry sector called for putting in place a proper policy to combat a possible outbreak of bird flue in the country.
The Agro-based Cooperative (ABC) made the plea and submitted a memorandum to the Fisheries and Livestock Secretary Wednesday.
Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand have suffered a catastrophic loss due to absence of a policy, while Japan has eradicated the disease with the minimal losses by having a proper policy to deal with the problem beforehand, the memorandum said.
The ABC submitted the memorandum following a thorough study on the global experiences of the bird flu situations.
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