Pit of despair
Over 100 poultry farmers are in utter despair as around one lakh hens have died of cold related diseases at 15 villages in Phulbaria upazila.
The villages include Kahalgaon, Enayetpur, Bhabanipur, Rangamatia and Achim in the upazila. The most affected area is Enayetpur, said a local UP chairman.
Over one lakh egg laying hens died in the areas last week, said Md Kabir Hossain, chairman of Enayetpur Union Parishad (UP).
The farmers are counting huge losses due to mass death of the chickens, said the villagers.
Meanwhile, local people are facing serious health hazard as the farm owners have been dumping their dead hens in the Bajua river.
Due to dumping of the dead hens in the river, diarrhoea and skin disease might spread among the people in the nearby areas, said Upazila Livestock Officer Md Mizanur Rahman.
There are 1,500 poultry farms in the upazila. Of them, 40 farms were affected.
A four-member medical team, led by a veterinary surgeon, has been rendering necessary advice to the affected farmers, said Mizanur.
Besides, the medical team asked the poultry farmers to spray germicide on the food of the chickens, he said.
They were informed about the mass death of the chickens last week but for their immediate steps, the deaths have been checked, the livestock official, said adding that no death was reported from any area this week.
Saiful Islam of Kahalgaon village said he never faced such a loss since his poultry business started in 2007. There were some 15,000 egg laying hens in his farm and 4000 died last week.
“We are continuing the business taking loans from different banks and NGOs, but the mass death of the hens has put a serious burden on us over how to pay the loans with interest”, Saiful said, adding that he has a loan of Tk 70 lakh.
Rustom Ali and Anwara Begum, poultry farmers of adjacent Soyeatpur village, said they also faced serious losses due to the mass death of the chickens.
Both the mass death and the huge pressure of loan have become serious concern for them, they added.
The UP chairman said there were 36,000 chickens in his 12 farms. Of them, 1,500 hens died last week. Overall, he incurred loss of Tk 10 lakh to Tk 12 lakh.
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