Avian flu costs Bangladesh Tk 2 billion in first quarter 2011

Avian influenza has cost the Bangladesh poultry industry Tk 2 billion (US$27.6 million) in the first three months of the 2011 fiscal year, according to the Bangladesh division of the World's Poultry Science Association.
"The loss will be Tk 55 billion (US$757.9 million) if it is estimated from 2007," said WPSA Bangladesh Secretary General Abdus Salek. The country's poultry sector is currently worth Tk 250 billion (US$3.5 billion).
So far this year, officials have had to cull over 100,000 chickens due to bird flu. The most recent outbreak, at a farm in Gazipur, resulted in 30,000 chickens and 50,000 eggs being destroyed.