Bird flu: FG asks farms to step up bio-security nationwide …denies new outbreak on Abuja farms
The Federal Government has said there is no any current case of bird flu in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as widely reported in the media, but asked farms nationwide to step up bio-security.
Dr Gideon Mshelbwala, the Director of Veterinary and Pest Control Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, told Daily Trust on Tuesday in a telephone interview on the update of the disease.
“What we said last week was not that there is current outbreak in the FCT. There is no current outbreak. What we said is that, so far in 2017, those are the states that have experienced outbreak from January till now. But from 2014 to 2016 we have about 26 states. But from January this year till date, only seven states have reported cases and they have their own different dates. The last state that reported to us is Kaduna, on May 30. But there is no any current case in the FCT.”
Dr. Mshelbwala listed the states affected by the outbreak of the disease from January to May 2017 to include Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, Nasarawa, Plateau, FCT and Kaduna,
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.
Last week, the chief veterinarian, while speaking on the bird flu situation from 2014 to date, said that there were no scientifically proven vaccines for bird flu yet but stressed that the Federal Government was adopting “quarantine, movement control, de-contamination and bio-security measures to curb the spread.”
He lamented that some poultry farmers had very poor bio-security practice which made it difficult to stamp out the spread of the disease.
“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.
The Acting Secretary of the FCT Agricultural and Rural Development (ARDS) Secretariat, Dr. Musa Aliyu, has debunked the rumour that there was an outbreak of bird flu disease in the FCT.
He stated this yesterday while briefing newsmen in Abuja.
Aliyu said, “There is no such epidemic in Abuja but if anyone observes any unusual sign, please let us know immediately, because we have our men in the field to take charge.”