How to do the bird flu dance

Making a Song and Dance of Bird Flu Prevention

With its feel of suburban comfort, Dhour village in the Harirampur Union does not look like a typical Bangladeshi town. But, like many towns in Bangladesh, Dhour is home to many small poultry farms, writes Arifa S.Sharmin. In most households of this village, chickens are as much at home as the residents, roaming as freely inside the houses as they move in the backyards.

Safura Khatun, age 50, raises about 400 chickens on the roof of her building in an enclosed area with a tin roof. She has been in business for almost a year and a half, but she says her profits have staggered in the past two months.

“People do not want to eat chicken or eggs any more because of bird flu,” she explains.

Since January, Bangladesh has seen massive Avian Influenza outbreaks across the country, spreading to 47 out of 64 districts and affecting 286 farms. The Government has culled over 1.5 million chickens.

Changing local practices

With UNICEF support, the Government has disseminated educational messages through the mass media to raise public awareness on bird flu prevention.

The most immediate response by the public has been to stop eating chicken and eggs. Unfortunately, poultry rearing and handling practices, where the real danger often lies, have remained largely the same.

Ms. Khatun, for example, says that she is aware of avian influenza and how to prevent it. “I use separate clothes and a mask when I work in the chicken pens. I also clean my hands and feet with soap after work,” she said.

Others in the community are not practicing safe hygiene, however. One young poultry-handler is seen placing eggs in a pot without washing his hands or the eggs. Another enters the poultry farm without wearing a mask or washing his hands.

In a nearby community, 22-year-old Rina Begum has a small backyard farm in which she used to rear twelve chickens and four ducks – until she introduced a new chicken into the same cage and all the birds died.

Rina does not know if her chickens died of bird flu, but says she had never experienced such rapid mortality from disease before. She says she is aware that cases of avian influenza should be reported to local authorities, but she could not afford the cost involved.

“It would have cost me one hundred taka (about $1.50) to go to the local government office. I need this money to feed my family,” she says.

Encouraging safety through theatre

With funding from the Government of Japan, UNICEF is working with local folk theatre groups across Bangladesh to close the gap between knowledge and safe practices among poultry handlers.

UNICEF has organized more than five hundred performances in different parts of the country in 2008, mainly in high-risk areas, to foster practices that can prevent the further spread of bird flu.

Recently in Dhour village, a rickshaw equipped with a megaphone drove through the community, inviting people to the show that evening. By 4 PM, some five hundred men, women and children had assembled at the school ground to watch the performance, a mix of drama and traditional songs.

“This drama is an eye-opener to me,” said Ms. Khatun, who also came to watch the show.

The messages delivered by the theatre company are adapted to the local context and are presented in local dialect so that people can easily understand.

“I never realized before that cleaning our hands with soap can save us from this disease” said one villager attending the show.

Bird Flu - Boardman, OH - 2022

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Bird FluThe Pennsylvania Dance Company - Boardman, OH - 2022 Junior • Small Group • Hollywood • Jazz Dancers (7): Emily Bayer, Reagan Diaz, Briella Donatelli, Kelyn Patton, Brynle Pfadt, Samantha Ristvey, Emma Kate Ristvey

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Beware! Bird flu.

Memo on the prevention of avian influenza

Avian influenza is an acute infectious viral disease characterized by damage to the digestive and respiratory organs and high mortality of domestic and wild birds of various species.

Sick poultry shows unusual behavior, impaired coordination of movements (rotational movement of the head, curvature of the neck), lack of response to external stimuli, a sharp decrease in egg production, refusal to feed, depression, diarrhea, hoarse labored breathing, convulsions, cough , sneezing, expiration from the nasal openings, ruffled plumage. Chickens have swollen and blue combs and wattles. The source of infection with the avian influenza virus is a sick bird and its waste products.

Avian influenza can be transmitted from birds to humans. A person can become infected with avian influenza both through contact with a sick bird, and by eating the meat or eggs of a sick bird without appropriate heat treatment.

Bird flu, like any other viral infection, is dangerous because of its ability to quickly change - mutate. The virus perfectly adapts to new conditions and habitats. As a result, bird flu can be transmitted not only from bird to person, but also from person to person. Moreover, humans do not have immunity to the bird flu virus. This means that even a perfectly healthy person with a disease can be in an extremely serious condition.

Bird flu symptoms in humans range from typical flu-like symptoms (very high fever, difficulty breathing, cough, sore throat and muscles) to an eye infection (conjunctivitis). If you develop any acute respiratory (flu-like) illness after contact with a bird, you should seek immediate medical attention. The only way to protect yourself from bird flu is to take preventive measures. If you keep a domestic or decorative bird, try to exclude its contact with wild individuals. In addition, do not forget to conduct annual preventive examinations of the health of your wards.

When buying a bird, be sure to ask for accompanying veterinary documents. Do not buy poultry from illegal trade sites.

Owners of personal subsidiary farms are strongly recommended to take the following measures aimed at protecting farms from the introduction of avian influenza virus:

1) ensure the identification and free-range keeping of poultry;

2) to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing the bird, with the exception of specialists from the civil service;

3) to provide specialists of the state veterinary service, at their request, with a bird for examination and carrying out preventive and anti-epizootic measures;

4) exclude the facts of purchasing poultry, poultry products and feed in unidentified places;

5) avoid contact of poultry kept on farms with wild birds;

6) provide mechanical cleaning and disinfection of poultry keeping areas;

7) exclude the export of litter and other waste products of poultry without prior disinfection;

8) exclude pollution of the natural environment by poultry products and biological waste.

In addition, we remind you to respect the rules of personal hygiene. Bird care should be carried out only in special clothes and shoes, which must be washed and cleaned regularly. Do not touch or pick up a dead bird from the street. Try to avoid places of mass accumulation of wild birds.

Do not buy eggs and poultry meat from unauthorized outlets.

Be sure to cook poultry products before eating them. Thoroughly washed poultry meat should be boiled for at least 30-40 minutes or fried well. Omelettes and scrambled eggs should be well fried. Do not eat raw or soft-boiled eggs.

We ask you to immediately report all cases of the occurrence of contagious diseases of poultry or suspicion of their occurrence, as well as the death of birds, unauthorized trade in poultry and poultry products and feed to the Veterinary Service of the KGBU "UV in the Burlinsky District" in the "hot line" cells. 8-923-160-96-77 (round the clock), office phone. 22-1-50 (8:00 to 17:00 hours).

Veterinary and sanitary expert of the KGBU Uskenbayeva

The first case of bird flu infection was registered in Bashkiria

Bird flu was registered in Bashkiria. According to preliminary data, the geese of the Altyn-kaz peasant farm LLC in the village of Bishkurai, Tuymazinsky district, were kept near the lake, which both birds of the farm and migratory birds could freely get to. Perhaps there was a contact of migratory birds with domestic birds on the reservoir. An epidemiological investigation is currently underway in this case. This farm contains more than five thousand heads of geese. This was reported by the press service of the Veterinary Administration of Bashkiria.

The agency noted that wild birds are the main carrier of the virus.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza is a highly contagious viral disease of birds, characterized by damage to the circulatory and central nervous systems, respiratory, digestive, excretory and egg production. Bird flu infects all types of domestic birds: chickens, geese, ducks, wild migratory birds - sparrows, crows, pigeons.

In 2020, bird flu foci were registered on the border with Bashkiria. There were cases of diseased birds just five kilometers from the Bakalinsky district of the republic. Also, foci were found in Tatarstan and the Chelyabinsk region.

At present, since the beginning of the year, 32 outbreaks of avian influenza have been registered in 11 regions of Russia, including seven outbreaks in Chelyabinsk, five in Orenburg, two in Samara and Tyumen, and one case in Saratov regions over the past month.

Residents of Bashkiria are advised to take measures to prevent further spread of avian influenza. First of all, the owners of the poultry population need to close all the birds and keep them in a no-walk mode in order to exclude contact with wild birds. Do not release birds into waterways. Do not buy food and birds from unknown manufacturers.

Birds ready for slaughter are recommended to be slaughtered now, except for birds in the endangered zone.