Nearly 30 lakh people are directly involved in this vital sector and making a significant contribution to the national economy, they added.

UNICEF held the discussion on bird flu at its conference room presided by President of Forum of Environmental Journalists of Bangladesh (FEJB) Quamrul Islam Chowdhury.

UNICEF Communication Officer Shamsuddin Ahmed, experts, professionals and journalists took part in the discussion.

Referring to the government's meticulous preparedness since the detection of bird flu, the speakers said the role of the mass media is significant to supplement the government efforts in this regard. UNICEF, with the help of the government of Japan, has provided $1.2 million to Bangladesh government in combating bird flu.

So far, about 1.7 lakh chickens were culled at 68 affected farms in 14 districts since the detection of the bird flu virus in the country, said the speakers.

UNICEF sources said as part of the government steps to check bird flu, the Livestock authorities have ordered stamping out and taking measures to disinfect all poultry farms around one kilometers radius of the affected farms, ban on transportation of poultry, chickens, eggs and pet birds within 10 kilometers radius of the affected areas.

Besides, deputy commissioners were asked to carry out intensive inspection at poultry farms while members of the armed forces were called out to assist the police in this respect.

Meanwhile, the ministries of Agriculture, Livestock and Health and Family Welfare have opened control rooms to monitor the situation and provide with preventive measures in places where avian influenza was detected.

According to Livestock Department statistics, there are 52,000 and 1.52 lakh poultry farms in the country while the estimated figure of poultry birds are about 20 crore.

International bodies, including World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), joined the campaign pledging to extend their technical and financial supports to face the deadly phenomenon, which so far killed 169 people and attacked 281 others in 60 countries following the latest bird flu outbreak.

According to the officials, preparations have been underway since two years ago when National Avian Influenza Human Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Plan Bangladesh 2006-2008 were formulated and a large number of doctors were trained to identify bird flu victims.

But World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Dhaka Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol earlier said the high population density exposed Bangladesh to the intensified avian influenza risks but "aggressive actions" involving all stakeholders and massive public awareness could help the South Asian country overcome this crisis.

The government has urged the people not to be panicked with the outbreak of avian flu as the human infliction of avian influenza were not reported from anywhere in South Asia including India despite its outbreak there.

Experts said that the chickens or eggs of even the flu inflicted poultry birds are safe after proper cooking and asked the people in handling them properly, to clean their hands and bury the poultry remnants underground.

In the latest outbreak, around 60 people in Asia have died, amounting to roughly half the known number of infections, which is a very high fatality rate.