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The
National Veterinary Research Institute said on Tuesday that new cases of
bird flu have been discovered in Abia and Enugu States.
Executive Director of the institute, Dr. Mohammed Ahmed, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos on Tuesday that it was the first time the flu was found in the two eastern states.
“The last
cases we stamped out in May, after destroying more than 1.4 million
birds, affected only 18 states. Now the two states have come down with
the disease and brought the total to 20 states,” he said.
He said
the new cases had been traced to the purchase of birds in Ibadan at the
“point of lay” by some poultry farmers in the two states.
“Unfortunately,
the young birds came down with the disease, which means that we have
not been enforcing the restriction in movement that is a key step in
controlling the disease.”
While
advising farmers to be more proactive, he said the purchase of birds at
the point of lay was “certainly not the best,” because farmers would not
know how the birds were raised.
He said
purchasing of birds at the point of lay was mostly done by lazy farmers,
adding that the attitude was “very dangerous, deadly and costly.”
He
therefore advised farmers to always patronise well established farms
that have massive hatcheries and were meticulous on biosecurity.
“The small
poultry farms do not take biosecurity seriously. But the big farms have
massive investments and do not play with the safety of their birds.”
The NVRI
boss said the national technical committee on bird flu had suggested to
the Federal Government, the establishment of an active surveillance unit
and was still waiting for response.
He also spoke on the payment of
compensations to owners of farms whose birds were destroyed, saying the
exercise was in progress.
“The
compensation has been spread into batches; batches 1, 2 and 3 have been
paid. The others have been verified and payment will resume soon.”
Source: Punch
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