It has been confirmed that the outbreak and spread of Avian Influenza, popularly known as Bird Flu, in Plateau State is real. Poultry owners and birds/chicken suppliers alike have been equally expressing concern over the escalation of the dreaded disease.
Yet, they are concealing the outbreak in their farms and poultry, and have continued to keep a tight-lipped silence over the situation, even as they continue to technically lament on how they could seek a solution to the problem on their own.
The outbreak of the disease was first noticed a few days before Christmas and has continued to spread, leading to the death of many chickens/birds in many poultry and large farms.
Public Relation Officer of the Poultry Farmers Association in Plateau State, Nanji Gambo-Oke, confirmed to our correspondent that the disease outbreak is true and has actually spread to three local government areas in the state already, adding that it has also ravaged six farms.
Our correspondent traced some of the poultry owners who confirmed the outbreak and bared their minds on why they are concealing it.
It was gathered that the major reason why they are concealing the outbreak is that if they make it known, the government will come and depopulate all the birds, with a promise to compensate them but will not fulfill its promise to them.
This situation, they said, have caused them overwhelming loss, while many of them have been put out of business over the years.
A poultry owner in Jos, the Plateau State capital, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said he bought 150 chickens from a farmer, only for him to find that 60 of them were dead the next day.
He said he complained what happened to the farmer and then the farmer reduced the price for him, explaining that the initial price was N2,200, but after the death of many of the chickens and their complaint, the farmer reduced the prices to N1,550.
He said both the dead birds and the infected ones are still sold and bought by people, especially dog owners who cook and give them to the dogs, and that they have been consuming such meat for many years without any issue.
He commended the farmer/chicken dealer for his understanding, saying that they have been doing business for long and that even though they did not initially understand the health condition of the chickens, the dealer was still considerate and slashed the original price and the both shared the loss.
He further explained that among the chickens, there are species that are more vulnerable to any kind of flu than the others, adding that those chickens which hardly catch diseases/flu are always strong when the others are infected.
Another poultry operator said the hullabaloo about bird flu is some kind of overrated animal disease, because it’s only when Agric chickens get sick and die that it is tagged bird flu.
He explained that local chickens, particularly in villages, have similar disease from time immemorial, and people kill them and eat without any repercussion.
He believes that once meat is cooked, even if it is infected with any kind of disease, it won’t have any effect on people.
According to him, there is no year they don’t experience large death of their chickens (which is often termed bird flu), but they have been buying and selling them to people who equally know the situation and prefer to buy and consume them.
He pointed out that the buyers of such chickens believe that nothing would happen to them, concurring also that they have never heard of any contrary/negative outcome since they have been selling lively or disease-infected chickens.
He stressed that they (poultry owners/operators) have even formed a stronger collaboration amongst themselves to assist any chicken farmer or big dealer who experiences disease outbreak in their facility since the government does not come to their aid or keep its promise with respect to disease outbreak.
He said they recently came to the rescue of one of their big dealers in Jos because they couldn’t afford to lose him since whatever happens to him would affect them tremendously because he is their major supplier.
Calls and messages sent to the Plateau State Commissioner for Agriculture, Hosea Finangwai, for his reaction was not responded to.
