The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, on Friday alerted the public on the outbreak of Avian Influenza commonly known as bird flu in 7 states and the FCT.
The Director of Veterinary and Pest Control Services of the Ministry, Dr Gideon Mshelbwala, raised the alert in a meeting with the affected States Commissioners of Agriculture in Abuja on Friday. He added that the States affected by the outbreak include Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kogi and the FCT.
Since the outbreak of the disease in 2008, it had spread across 26 states of the federation including the FCT, affecting about 800 farms in no fewer than 123 local government areas.
Dr Mshelbwala, pointed out that there were no scientifically proven vaccines against birdflu, he observed that the Federal Government was adopting quarantine, movement control, stamping out, decontamination and bio-security measures to curb the spread.
The director chided some poultry farmers over poor bio-security practices as it was the major reason for the continuous spread of the disease. He, however, warned poultry farmers against illegal vaccination of birds, saying that it was a deadly alternative to the control of the disease.
According to him, the Federal Government has paid over N674 million in compensations to 269 farmers across the affected states.
Dr Mshelbwala, stated that the 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 added.
Dr 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.
