Kaduna confirms 2 more bird flu cases

The Desk Officer, Avian Influenza, Depart-ment of Animal Health in the state Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Francis Kambai, said measures are being taken to curtail its spread.
But a veterinary doctor in Ungwan Rimi and a retired civil servant who pleaded anonymity said there is no bird flu in the area.
“All these people that say they are operating poultry farms do not follow the proper channel to get feeds and drugs for their birds and that is why they fall sick and die. And when that happens, they say its bird flu, whereas it is not. The government is only using the disease to make money. Okay, if they say there is outbreak in Ungwan Rimi, which farms have it”, he said.
The Desk Officer, Francis Kambai said: “Two backyard poultry farms in Ungwan Rimi and Sabon Tasha have been confirmed with avian influenza. The owner of the farm in Ungwan Rimi is known as Abdullahi and the flock size of birds found in the farm is 500, because by the time we got there, some had died. And in Sabon Tasha, the flock size was about 400 and we have depopulated and disinfected the places.
“There was also another unconfirmed case in Mararaban Jos. We took and sent the samples to the National Veterinary Research Institute (Vom) and they came out to be negative. We are always on alert; anywhere there is the need, we take samples and send them to the lab and even today (yesterday), we sent samples to them,” he said.
On compensation given to owners of infected farms, he said: “We have sent their requests to Abuja and you know, we are not in charge of paying the compensation at the state level, but they are processing it and they will pay them”.
Chairman of the Abubakar Gumi Market Poultry Sellers Association, Mohammed Kabir Ibrahim, in an interview with Daily Trust, said there is no bird with the disease in the market.