Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is highly endemic in Bangladesh. Using passive surveillance data (case records from all 64 districts of Bangladesh, 2014–2017) and district domestic ruminant population estimates, we calculated FMD cumulative incidence per 10,000 animals at risk per district, conducted cluster (Moran’s spatial autocorrelation and scan statistics) and hotspot analysis (local indicator of spatial association statistic), created predictive maps and identified risk factors using a geographically weighted regression model. A total of 548,817 FMD cases in cattle and buffalo were reported during the four-year study period. The highest proportion (31.5%) of cases were reported during the post-monsoon season, and from Chattogram (29.2%) division. Five space-time clusters, 9 local clusters, and 14 hotspots were identified. Overall, higher cumulative incidences of FMD were consistently predicted in eastern parts of Bangladesh. The precipitation in the pre-monsoon season (p = 0.0008) was positively associated with FMD in Bangladesh. Results suggest climate plays an important role in the epidemiology of FMD in Bangladesh, and high risk zones exist. In a resource limited-setting, hotspots and clusters should be prioritized for vaccination coverage, and surveillance for FMD should be targeted in eastern areas of Bangladesh and during the post-monsoon season.

Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is endemic in Bangladesh, but its spatial distribution and risk factors have not yet been reported. Using four years of national-level, passive surveillance data (2014 to 2017), in this study we aimed to identify risk factors, create PPR risk maps and describe PPR time-space clusters. We selected PPR case records—mainly based on presumptive diagnosis of small ruminants in subdistrict veterinary hospitals—and sheep and goat population data from all 64 districts of Bangladesh. Peste des Petits Ruminants cumulative incidence per 10,000 animals at risk per district was used to conduct cluster and hotspot analysis and create predictive maps for each year and all 4 years combined. The association between PPR cumulative incidence and hypothesized risk factors—including climatic variables, elevation, road length, river length, railroad length, land cover, and water bodies—was analyzed using a geographically weighted regression model. The total number of PPR cases reported during the study period was 5.2 million. We found that most PPR cases (27.6%) were reported in the monsoon season. The highest and lowest proportions of cases were reported from Rajshahi (36.1%) and Barisal divisions (2.1%), respectively. We identified five space-time clusters, 9 high–high clusters, and 9 hotspots. The predicted cumulative incidences of PPR were persistently higher in north-east, north-west, and south-east parts of Bangladesh. Road length (P = 0.03) was positively associated with PPR incidence in Bangladesh. Results suggest that movement of animals (road length) plays an important role in the epidemiology of PPR in Bangladesh. Along with restriction of animal movement, hotspots and high–high clusters should be targeted first for immunization coverage in Bangladesh and similar PPR endemic countries to achieve eradication.

The urban living standard index of the Population Crisis Committee, based on 10 indicators of urban quality of life for the 98 largest metropolitan cities of the world, has been used in this paper to create three groups of cities: those having high, medium, and low standards of living. The discriminant analysis technique has been applied for identifying those measures that contribute most in discriminating the three groups. The adequacy of the technique has been demonstrated by the fact that 97 per cent of the cases have been correctly classified. The first discriminant function accounted for 93 per cent of the total discriminable variance. The analysis shows that food cost, measured by the percentage of income spent on food, is the most influential discriminator among the three groups of cities. The other important discriminators are living space (number of persons per room), housing standard (percentage of homes with water/electricity), communication (number of telephones per 100 persons), education (percentage of children in secondary school), and infant mortality rate (infant deaths per 1000 live births). Implications are discussed.

SummaryBirth history data from women in the 1975–76 Bangladesh Fertility Survey were used to search for intentions to replace dead children. The median intervals between successive births of orders (i) and (i + 1) were not shorter when some siblings of orders below (i) had died. Nor was the median duration between the death of a child and the first posthumous birth shorter when the dead child was a boy or when it was survived by fewer than two brothers. The median intervals were generally shorter when the mother lived in an urban rather than a rural area but this difference was attributable only to the shorter duration of breast-feeding by urban women. These results disputed the notions that the timing of births was deliberately quicker to replace a dead child, that attempts at replacement were sex-selective, or that child replacement intentions were stronger in urban than in rural populations.

Abstract:The purpose of methods and techniques of social research is to offer tools necessary for dealing with social problems through research in a scientific manner. The special emphasis of methods and techniques of social research arises mainly in the coverage of its materials. It contains both methods of collecting observations pertaining to social phenomena and techniques for analyzing them. The greatest advantage of having both methods and techniques within the same covers is that a researcher may easily establish a direct linkage between them and this may help greatly to choose an appropriate technique to analyze data.

This study based on the 1975-76 Bangladesh Fertility Survey showed that the mortality of sons, and not daughters, was associated with a lower rate of female contraceptive initiation of use and a higher rate of discontinuation.

Analysis of environmental samples obtained from the Live Poultry Markets (LPMs) of Dhaka City, Bangladesh, has revealed that the highest degree of prevalence of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (HPAI, H5N1), besides other subtypes of the LPAI virus, poses the plausible risk of transmission of these viruses between human and poultry species. The present study was conducted using the OIE risk analysis framework to assess the risk level of each pathway successively. The estimated risk parameters were integrated towards to obtain the overall risk level for each specific HPAI transmission pathway using the matrix adapted by Cristobel Zepeda accompanying other expert consultations. The relevant data obtained from published and unpublished sources, together with survey data of field observations, were used to formulate and confirm the risk pathways and their associated risks. The results revealed that the risk of the release of the HPAI virus was medium when exposure was high. Additionally, the consequence would be considered very high with a medium degree of uncertainty for all parameters. Ultimately, the overall risk for transmission was estimated as medium with a medium degree of uncertainty. The findings of this study reveal that there is a significant threat that HPAI virus transmission could occur among poultry and humans and effectively sustain within the environment of the LPMs. Our findings are primarily focused on public health considerations, the hygienic slaughter of poultry and the relevant cleaning and sanitation practices conducted in the LPMs to support evidence‐based decision‐making processes. The findings of the study have the potential to be used to formulate effective risk reduction measures and can be further adapted in low‐resource settings without major infrastructural changes required of the LPMs. All of which would reduce the risk of HPAI virus release and further lessen the degree of exposure and transmission in established LPMs.

The overuse of antibiotics, chemicals and as well as lack of farm biosecurity and good hygiene practices in poultry production are considered to be contributors for occurring foodborne illness and many significant public health threats reported in both developed and developing countries nowadays. Considering the above, a piloted food safety activity was implemented jointly by the Department of Livestock Services and FAO-Food Safety program, Bangladesh in twenty-five selected poultry (broiler) dense subdistricts of the country. Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) and Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) related five (microbial) plus five (chemical) Code of Practices (CoP) were adopted at the farm level (N=500) through farmers’ motivation and intensive participatory training program. It was found that average production cost reduces, the feed conversion ratio decreases and mortality rate decreases that convince increase farm profitability in the best-practiced farms (n=81). In conclusion, Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) and Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) through certifying key control measures can increase profitability in broiler farming and CoP adapted farms found to be less public health hazardous than non-CoP farms in light of food safety and public health grounds. Asian Australas. J. Food Saf. Secur. 2018, 2(2), 45-55