Five live bird market

Bangladesh

14 more to be in place across the country for safe poultry products
Staff Correspondent

A USAID-funded pilot project, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, on Tuesday opened five live bird markets in Dhaka aimed at keeping at bay avian influenza and ensuring safe poultry products for people.
The project opened one market each at the New Market, Gulshan and Karwan Bazar and two at Jatrabari. The markets were set rolling with the inauguration of the market at the New Market.
Fourteen more such markets will be opened across the country under the pilot project, project officials said.
‘We have completed renovation of five markets in Dhaka — one each at Gulshan, New Market and Karwan Bazar and two at Jatrabari,’ KBM Ashfaqur Rahman, the national consultant of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, said on Tuesday. ‘Fourteen other markets will be opened in a few months.’
Under the $575,000 project (about Tk 40 million), eight such markets will be in Dhaka, three in Chittagong, two each in Sylhet and Khulna, one each in Bogra, Rajshahi, Barisal and Cox’s Bazar, the project officials said during the inauguration of the market at the New Market.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation is carrying out the project, Improved Bio-Security and Hygiene Production, Collection Points and Live Bird Markets.
The city corporations, the Department of Livestock Services and municipalities were facilitating the project with the cooperation of respective market committees.
Poultry hygiene has been a matter of concern for Bangladesh since 2007 when the avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu broke out, project officials said during the market inauguration on Tuesday. They said traders had been provided with cleaning and disinfection equipment.
‘It will make cleaning and disinfection of the market easier,’ the FAO country representative, Ad Spijkers, said during the inauguration ceremony.
He said cleaner markets would help to reduce the chance of disease spreading to customers, other markets and poultry farms.
‘This project should be a part of the government’s initiative to improve hygienic conditions of the market,’ said Spijkers, adding that markets in general are tough to manage.
Under the project, the markets will also have a trained team of cleaners for regular wash, cleaning and disinfection.