Bird flu:Return of the mass killer

In this report, COLLINS NNABUIFE writes that even as the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, raised the alarm over presence of bird flu in 26 states, some poultry traders are not aware of the development, just as fighting the flu may be tougher this time than it was in 2008.

RECENTLY, the Federal Government raised the alarm over the outbreak of bird flu, otherwise known as avian influenza, in 26 states in the country. The first outbreak of the disease was reported in 2006 and another, in 2008 but was controlled through a World Bank-sponsored project and the support of other partner agencies.

According to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh,“the current status of the disease in the country is quite alarming. It has now affected 26 states and the FCT, with over 3.5 million birds culled so far.”

He said a new strain of the bird flu (H5N8) was reported in Kano and that the new strain was believed to be very pathogenic and more devastating to poultry species and therefore, it might further add to the burden of the strain (H5N1) that was currently in the country.

It is worrisome that the avian influenza, which was contained in 2009 after its first outbreak in 2006, has suddenly become endemic across the country. It has triggered serious concern among stakeholders in the poultry industry. According to the Director-General of Poultry Association of Nigeria, Mr. Onallo Akpa, the continuous spread of the disease is because of a lack of political will by the government to contain it. He said the government was able to contain the virus in 2009 because it galvanised the relevant agencies and ministries and engaged the private sector and other relevant bodies in the subsector.

“The issue of bird flu or avian influenza outbreak in Nigeria is not new to us. We had the first outbreak in 2006, and between 2006, 2008 and 2009, we were able to contain the disease. Until recently, we never had any other outbreak and the poultry industry in Nigeria continued to grow.

“We were able to contain it because there was the political will and commitment to eradicating the disease, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was the president then. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture was deeply involved; the Poultry Association of Nigeria was deeply involved; the Federal Ministry of Health was involved; The Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation was involved. The essence of this is that every critical stakeholder had a role to play, and there were steering committees; there were technical committees. They were meeting every week.”

Akpa insisted that the reason the disease had become endemic was because government failed in its duty to provide the right leadership, warning that with the way the government is handling the issue, “the industry is heading for crisis of scarcity and high cost of raw materials for poultry activities. So, in a nutshell, I will say the difference in containing the disease between 2006 and 2008, 2009 and now, is lack of the political will and commitment from the government.”

Chief Ogbeh had said that one of the major causes of the spread of the disease is the unhygienic on-farm practice by some poultry farmers and violation of some biosecurity measures, but Mr Akpa disagreed. He argued that a farmer who borrowed money from the bank to set up a poultry farm would not be too careless to allow diseases to destroy his investment.

He said government must identify the loopholes and critical areas where the disease is coming from.

“As an investor, I put my hard-earned money either by borrowing or otherwise into the industry and I will be so careless for the first time, second time and third time and I will lose my investment? It does not happen to any sane person.

“I think the government is oblivious of the importance of the poultry industry to the economy of Nigeria. If they did, they would never play with the subsector the way they are playing with it now.

”What Nigeria needs to know is that avian influenza is a peculiar poultry disease that needs high hand, high resources and good scientific knowledge to contain. It is the responsibility of government to do active surveillance, identify loopholes, critical areas where these diseases come from. This industry is 100 per cent private sector-driven.

Unfortunately the disease may be harder to contain now unlike before. Chief Ogbeh said that the current economic crisis in the country would pose a serious challenge for the disease to be controlled because currently there is shortage of fund.

“Our effort to put the current outbreaks of avian influenza on halt and to eradicate it as we did in 2008 has been hampered by several challenges .The obvious is the paucity of funds as a result of the current economic challenge in the country due to dwindling oil price,” he said.

But the DG of PAN, disagreed. According to him:“Nigeria is not the only country that is undergoing recession, even the poorest countries in the world pay compensation to their farmers because it has social and economic implications.

“At the association level, we will continue to educate our farmers by organising workshops, seminars on biosecurity practices, management practices, health practices and then we do it in all the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria and then and there are special trainers that also build the capacity of the rural farmers on biosecurity.”

Meanwhile, some poultry farmers and dealers have said that they were not aware of the outbreak of bird flu in the country, as they have not noticed the disease in their farms.

When Sunday Tribune visited Karu Market in Abuja, a poultry dealer Vigilus Nweze  said there was no sign of the disease in their birds.

“In this Karu market, we have not had any case of bird flu. We have an association called Karu Market Fowl Sellers Association. I only heard about it over the radio, and as a dealer, I can tell you that no case of bird flu has been recorded here.

“We also buy our stock from poultry farms within Abuja, like Karshi, Masaka and other places within Nasarawa State I have not heard of bird flu,” he said.

On the preventive method they would adopt to contain the flu, Nweze said they would work as an association.

“We individually have cages that restrict the movements of our birds in the market, even the local fowl that we buy from the far north.

“Any of those chicken you see now looking weak may not be as a result of flu, but as a result of weakness from long distant transportation. You know the manner they are been transported from the far north makes them look weak by the time they are brought here.

“And anytime we notice any sign of flu in our birds, we cull them and bury them to ensure that the virus does not spread to others.”

Nweze queried government’s plan to ban trans-boundary movement of birds, saying it would affect the poultry industry.

“The government’s decision to ban such movement of birds may be justified, but we appeal that more proactive plans should be put in place so that the interest of all will be protected in the fight against bird flu.

“As a matter of policy in our association in the market, we don’t allow our members to go to any place where the case of bird flu has been confirmed to buy chicken,” he noted.