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Summary: In the absence of robust active surveillance of avian influenza viruses (AIV) affecting poultry in South Asian countries, monitoring of live bird markets (LBMs) can be an alternative. In a longitudinal study of 32 LBM, five environments were sampled as follows: market floor, stall floor, slaughter area, poultry holding cage and water used for meat processing. Samples were taken monthly for 5 months, September 2013–January 2014. Incidence rates (IRs) of LBM contamination with AIV and its subtypes H5, H7 and H9 were assessed. In 10 of the LBM selected, biosecurity measures had been implemented through FAO interventions: the other 22 were non‐intervened. Standard procedures were applied to detect AIV and three subtypes in pooled samples (1:5). An LBM was considered positive for AIV or a subtype if at least one of the pooled samples tested positive. The incidence rates of LBM contamination with AIV, H5, H7 and H9 were 0.194 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.136–0.276), 0.031 (95% CI 0.013–0.075), 0 and 0.175 (95% CI 0.12–0.253) per LBM‐month at risk, respectively. The log IR ratio between the FAO‐intervened and non‐intervened LBM for contamination with AIV was −0.329 (95% CI −1.052 to −0.394, p = .372), 0.598 (95% CI −1.593 to 2.789, p = .593) with subtype H5 and −0.500 (95% CI −1.249 to 0.248, p = .190) with subtype H9, indicating no significant difference. The results obtained suggest that both H5 and H9 were circulating in LBM in Bangladesh in the second half of 2013. The incidence of contamination with H9 was much higher than with H5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bangladesh has been considered as one of the five countries endemic with highly pathogenic avian influenza A subtype H5N1 ( HPAI H5N1). Live-bird markets ( LBMs) in south Asian countries are believed to play important roles in the transmission of HPAI H5N1 and others due to its central location as a hub of the poultry trading. Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO) of the United Nations has been promoting improved biosecurity in LBMs in Bangladesh. In 2012, by enrolling 32 large LBMs: 10 with FAO interventions and 22 without assistance, we assessed the virus circulation in the selected LBMs by applying standard procedures to investigate market floors, poultry stall floors, poultry-holding cases and slaughter areas and the overall biosecurity using a questionnaire-based survey. Relative risk ( RR) was examined to compare the prevalence of HPAI H5N1 in the intervened and non-intervened LBMs. The measures practised in significantly more of the FAO-intervened LBMs included keeping of slaughter remnants in a closed container; decontamination of poultry vehicles at market place; prevention of crows' access to LBM, market/floor cleaning by market committee; wet cleaning; disinfection of floor/poultry stall after cleaning; and good supply of clean water at market ( P < 0.05). Conversely, disposal of slaughter remnants elsewhere at market and dry cleaning were in operation in more of the FAO non-intervened LBMs ( P < 0.05). The RR for HPAI H5N1 in the intervened and non-intervened LBMs was 1.1 (95% confidence interval 0.44-2.76), suggesting that the proportion positive of the virus in the two kinds of LBM did not vary significantly ( P = 0.413). These observations suggest that the viruses are still maintained at the level of production in farms and circulating in LBMs in Bangladesh regardless of interventions, albeit at lower levels than in other endemic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steganography is the method to hide a message inside another message in such a way that can only be detected by its intended recipient. Text documents have been widely used for a very long time. A number of text steganography algorithms have been introduced. This paper presents a new approach for steganography in Bengali texts. Considering the structure of Bengali alphabet/words, in this approach, we hide the secret message in the text by shifting the specific 'matra' towards left, by shifting the points of some characters and by shifting the character 'ref' respectively. This approach can be categorized under feature coding methods. The approach shows good result on the sample collected from different Bengali newspaper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]