The livestock department said it culled 1,51,222 hens affected by avian flu since January.
It said 17,723 of the hens were culled at four poultry farms in Januray and 1,33,499 others at 41 farms in February.
Livestock officials said that they have been culling hens since an outbreak was detected in four poultry farms in January and 1,69,640 eggs were destroyed during the period.
They said that until Friday they detected the infection in 41 poultry farms.
They said that there was no reason to panic as they intensified the vigil to detect and stamp out the infection.
They said that on Thursday the department personnel culled 3504 affected hens of Kheya Poultry Farm at Rajashon in Savar upazila in Dhaka.
Officials at the Livestock’s Department’s Central Avian Influenza Outbreak Management Centre in Dhaka, so far detected infection at 45 farms in 25 upazilas and four metropolitan thanas of 16 districts.
According to the center 24,581 hens died of infection.
According to the sources, the department has strengthened poultry farm visiting activities to ensure hygienic environment of the farms and to detect the affected farms easily.
The department said it paid to the farm owners a compensation of Tk 220 for each culled local or layer hen aged more than 12 weeks, Tk 150 for a hen aged between 2 to 12 weeks, Tk 160 for each broiler aged above four weeks, Tk 100 for each broiler aged below four weeks and Tk five for each damaged egg.
Sohrab Hossain Zishan, an official at the centre, told New Age that the department had been advising people not to bring for three mo9nths new poultry birds within one kilometer of the farms since hens were culled there.
Courtesy of New Age
