They also laid emphasis on integrated efforts of the ministries concerned and owners of poultry industry to prevent bird flu.

The roundtable titled 'Present bird flu situation of Bangladesh and implementation of the national resistance policy' was organised by the Citizens committee to resist bird flu in Bangladesh at the National Press Club in the city.

Prof Ahmed Kamal, acting convener of the committee, said the government did not give due importance to the problem which might cause serious havoc in the country.

He said at the beginning many governments in Africa were indifferent to the outbreak of AIDS, but when they took the issue seriously it was too late.

Though Bangladesh government has taken many measures regarding the avian influenza recently, it did not give enough importance about it earlier, he added.

Prof Kamal said, " We have to take adequate preparation immediately for the sake of poultry industry and public health."

A member of the committee said some investigation teams had visited different firms where the virus was detected and found that their bio-security measures were very weak.

Besides, most of the firms are not following the national policy to cull all the chicks within one kilometre of the affected firms, he added.

Dr MM Khan, an expert on avian influenza, said Bangladesh is a fertile place for the virus.

"We must confine the virus only to chicks before it spreads to human being and if the virus once can spread to people it would be dangerous," he cautioned.

Dr Khan said it is still not too late to gear up the monitoring and surveillance system on firm workers to keep them virus free.

ABM Faruque, professor of pharmacy department of Dhaka University, said the main problem of the country is that it is densely populated and there is lack of awareness about the virus.

He alleged that some experts hid the matter resulting spread of the virus among the chicks and no administrative actions were taken against them.

He urged the government to ensure bio-security in poultry firms to protect poor people who work there.

Prof Anu Muhammad, member-secretary of the committee, said the monitoring system of the government is very poor and the virus will spread here faster due to low resistance power of country people.

"We will be in dangerous situation, if we hide the truth for the sake of country's image," he said, adding that the owners of poultry industry and the ministries concerned should work together to combat the bird flu. Media can also play an important role in this regard," he added.

Committee Members Engineer M Inamul Haque, Abul Hasan Rubel and Nur Muhammad also spoke at the roundtable.