Reports from Nigeria say the
Director of Veterinary and Pest Control Services of the Federal
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, has alerted the general
public on the recent outbreak of bird flu.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
File photo
According to NAN report, the Federal Government on Friday alerted the public to the outbreak
of Avian Influenza or Bird Flu in seven states of Nigeria.
The Director of Veterinary and Pest Control Services, Federal
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Gideon Mshelbwala,
stated this at a meeting with state Commissioners of Agriculture in
Abuja on Friday.
Mshelbwala listed the states affected by the outbreak to include
Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Nasarawa, Plateau, FCT and lastly Kaduna,
which reported a case on May 30.
He said that the disease had spread across 26 states of the
federation and the FCT since it started in 2008 affecting 800 farms in
no fewer than 123 local government areas.
Mshelbwala, who said that there were no scientifically proven
vaccines for bird flu, noted that the Federal Government was adopting
quarantine, movement control, stamping out, decontamination and
bio-security measures to curb the spread.
The director expressed regret over the poor bio-security practices
by some poultry farmers, adding that it was the major reason for the
continuous spread of the disease.
According to him, the Federal Government has paid over N674m in compensations to 269 farmers across the affected states.
“Our national action plan encourages proper regulation of the
poultry industry and enforcement of annual registration of all actors
along the poultry value chain including farmers, traders, egg merchants
and feed millers.
“It also encourages the creation of veterinary extension
services to facilitate the control and proper inspection of poultry and
poultry products,’’ he said.
Mshelbwala said that the way forward to the containment of the
disease was to ban importation of poultry and products, quarantine and
bio-security measures, among others.
He, however, warned poultry farmers against illegal vaccination of
birds, saying that it was a deadly alternative to the control of the
disease.
-NAN
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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