Bangladesh has decided to impose fresh ban on import of poultry products from five countries to protect the local industry from the threat of bird flu.

The decision was taken at a recent fishery and livestock ministry meeting to protect the 50 billion taka (833 million US dollars) local poultry industry, The Financial Express reported Wednesday.

The five countries included in the ban are Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Earlier, the country had imposed the ban on the poultry import from Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Japan and China's Taiwan province due to serious outbreak of bird flu since early 2004.

New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul, however, had appealed to Dhaka to withdraw the existing ban on import of chick, eggs and other products.

They claimed that their products were now free of deadly viruses that caused the outbreak of bird flu in this part of the world in late 2003.

But Dhaka opted for continuing the existing ban along with other five countries following the suggestions of experts and businessmen.

The annual demand of poultry birds in Bangladesh is between 400 million to 500 million pieces. Currently 150 million to 160 million pieces of broilers and 6 billion of eggs are being produced annually.

Nearly 1.5 million farmers are directly and some 3.5 million people are indirectly involved in this sector.

Source: Xinhua