Poultry farmers protest govt's comment on spreading anthrax panic

---

FE Report
An organisation of local poultry farmers Monday protested the government's comment that the broiler chicken traders are willingly spreading anthrax panic among countrymen.
In a statement, the Breeders Association of Bangladesh, a platform of the poultry chick producers, said there is no connection between the poultry traders and spreading panic on anthrax.
Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas Sunday said the anthrax panic is nothing but propaganda of seven organisations of the poultry traders.
After a meeting with the meat and dairy traders at the Secretariat, Mr Biswas said intelligence reports revealed that those organisations of poultry owners, whose name he did not mention, were involved in spreading anthrax panic.
After an emergency meeting of the association, the BAB in the statement said: "The poultry owners are also shocked like the consumers and the government due to spreading of anthrax panic across the country."
"We have no contest with the beef and mutton traders. All of these are under the same ministry. If any of these sub-sectors is affected, it will cerate pressure on other sub-sectors," they said.
BAB said the local poultry businessmen are working along with all the responsible groups to prevent spreading of anthrax among cattle in the country.
"We are working hard to meet people's protein demand following the anthrax panic across the country. We are trying to boost production of poultry birds and eggs," the statement said.
The BAB said a very small portion of the country's cattle is affected by anthrax, but the panic has spread rapidly among mass people.
"Pubic awareness is required to fight against the contagion. We are always ready to help the government for creating public awareness," said the statement.
The first case of anthrax was detected on August 18 in Sirajganj, and the number of infected cases crossed 500 until last week.
The government on August 29 set up four check-posts at the city's entry points to prevent entering of ailing cattle to the capital. On Sep 5, the government declared red alert.