FG gives update on bird flu, asks farmers to guard farms

Following the confirmations of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) outbreaks in four states (Lagos, Delta, Osun and Bayelsa) by the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) in October, the Federal Government has asked the farmers to take a number of measures to curtail the spread to their farms.

In a letter last week to all the Directors of Veterinary Services, of the 36 states and the FCT as well as the chairman Poultry Association of Nigeria, the Director, Department of Veterinary and Pest Control Services of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture And Rural Development, Dr Maimuna Abdullahi Habib, highlighted the issues  responsible for the resurgence and advised farmers and stakeholders on what to do.

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Dr Maimuna said the resurgence of the HPAI in Jan 2021 in 29 states, broke a relatively long period of silence of the virus scourge in the country since2019, adding that recent test “suggests a fresh outbreak and spread of the disease and therefore calls for caution and renewed efforts to control the spread.”

She said as part of the efforts of the government to control and take proactive measures against the spread of the disease, a risk assessment was conducted and the result shows poor biosecurity practices in poultry farms including the citing of poultry farms especially clustering of farms and vaccination against HPAI with invalidated vaccines.

Others include uncontrolled activities in the live birds’ market and mixing of all the species of birds within the same place in the market; delay in the release of laboratory results (Turn-around time of Lab results) and Lack of control of movement of marketers (egg, manure, spent hens etc.) between different states from Northern to Southern Nigeria.

The director therefore called on farmers and relevant stakeholders to avoid all the practices outlined above that contribute to the spread of the outbreak.

“All the operators of live bird markets should be at alert to stop the purchase of birds from farms experiencing high mortalities or the sale of such birds in their respective markets,” she advised.