About 1,400 ducks on a farm in Basail, Tangail, are alleged to have died after being given expired duck plague vaccine from the upazila livestock office. Farm owner Ripon Sikder has lost about Tk 7 lakh and the small entrepreneur is at his wits' end.

Ripon lives in Maytha Uttarpara village of Fulki union in Basail upazila. He is preparing to seek legal help.

A year ago, Ripon Sikder leased 42 decimals of land and set up a duck farm, starting with 1,000 ducks. For his second batch he stocked 1,800 ducklings: 1,730 of the Nageshwari breed for eggs and 70 of a Belgian breed for meat.

When the ducklings were a month old, on 5 June, Ripon went to Zahirul Islam, the sub-assistant livestock officer (extension) in charge of vaccines at the Basail upazila livestock office, for duck plague vaccine. Zahirul Islam gave him 19 bottles of vaccine, and on 7 June Ripon vaccinated the ducks.

The ducks started dying a day after vaccination, and the toll kept rising. Within a few days about 1,400 had died. When the vaccine bottles were checked, they showed the vaccine had expired on 20 May this year.

Ripon's wife, Tania Akter, said: "After bringing the vaccine from the upazila livestock office, it was given to about 1,700 ducks. The rest were given a company's vaccine. The ducks began dying the day after the livestock office's vaccine was given. About 500 died in one day. In this way about 1,400 ducks died. The remaining 400 or so were released into the beel, and they are dying there too. We set up this farm with a loan. Now we are destitute."

Ripon Sikder said: "On 5 June I went to Zahirul Islam, who is in charge of vaccines at the upazila livestock office, for duck plague vaccine. He gave me 19 bottles. Then on 7 June I gave the vaccine to about 1,700 ducks. From the next day the ducks began to die; more than 500 died in one day. Within a few days about 1,400 ducks on my farm died. The dead ducks have been buried. The remaining live ducks were released into the beel, and they are dying too."

"When the ducks kept dying, I checked the vaccine bottles and saw the vaccine had expired about a month earlier. Because of Zahirul Islam's mistake I have lost about Tk 7 lakh. When I went to the upazila livestock office afterwards, Zahirul Islam said he had made a mistake. I set up this duck farm with a loan. This loss has ended my life; I have no means to make it up. So I am demanding compensation, and I will take legal action," he said.

Local resident Shamsul Haque said Ripon had set up the farm on a loan and had lost a great deal through the livestock officer's mistake. He demanded punishment for the accused officer and compensation for Ripon.

Local union parishad member Suman Sarkar Jamal said 1,400 to 1,500 of Ripon's ducks had died because of an officer's mistake, costing Ripon a lot of money. "As local people, we demand compensation for Ripon," he said.

The accused sub-assistant livestock officer (extension), Zahirul Islam, gave a different account: "The young man named Ripon came to me on 6 June. He was given 20 doses of duck plague vaccine. After a few ducks died, Ripon came and returned 10 vaccines to me. When I checked, the vaccine had expired on 20 May. Seeing that, we threw away the rest of the expired vaccines at our office. Then suddenly he came again saying 1,400 ducks had died in total."

He said his mistake was not noticing the expiry date when he handed over the vaccine. But he claimed that even if an expired vaccine does no good, there is no reason for it to cause harm.

Basail Upazila Livestock Officer Dr Faruk Ahammad said he had newly joined and learned of the duck deaths on arrival. If expired vaccine was distributed, action will be taken against the officer, and the victim will be helped through incentives.

District Livestock Officer Dr Rana Mia said action will be taken against the officer if he is found to have been negligent.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.