Amid rising concerns of public health experts, the department of livestock is proceeding to commercially introduce the poultry vaccine against avian influenza virus from December, officials said on Thursday. Livestock department officials said that they had sent the draft proposal to the ministry of fisheries and livestock for approval by the national technical committee on bird flu vaccination which had showed that it would respond positively to such a proposal.
‘We shall, off course, vaccinate poultry birds. It will probably start from December next,’ department of livestock director general Mosaddek Hossain told New Age last week.
Livestock department and livestock ministry officials said the department had sent the proposal for commercial introduction after testing the vaccine in Bajitpur and Gazipur and the result was positive.
Bird flu outbreaks which occur during the winter from November to March pose a big threat to Bangladesh’s booming poultry industry which comprises 1.5 lakh commercial poultry farms.
A number of livestock officials and health experts said introduction of vaccine against H5N1 would create some controversy in the light of is costs and other issues.
In addition, health department officials claimed that the government initiative to vaccinate would bring serious human health hazards.
As vaccinated birds carry the virus without there being any sign or symptoms, people handling these birds remain more vulnerable to the virus, they said.
When asked, Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research director Mahmudur Rahman told New Age on Thursday that the avian influenza vaccine is a threat to human health as the virus can easily spread out in the environment.
‘For this reason, we do not encourage the vaccination among the birds in the country,’ he said.
Experts from some countries including Vietnam, Egypt and Indonesia that had experience of vaccination now discouraged its introduction to any country where it has not so far been introduced, the IEDCR director mentioned.
-With New Age input
