Outbreak of bird flu: Limit the movement of birds – Poultry farmers urged

• The Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association has urged its members to be careful with their birds because of the outbreak of bird flu

• This is to prevent the further spread of the flu to other regions during the festive occasion

Following the announcement by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture that there is an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the Greater Accra, Central and Volta regions, President of the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association, Michael Nyarko Ampem, has urged its members to limit the movement of birds to stop the further spread of the flu.

As Tuesday, July 20, 2021, has been declared a holiday for the celebration of Eid-ul-Adha, he urged poultry farms to be conscious of their biosecurity and monitor both their activities and the birds to prevent the transfer of the flu from one region to the other.

In an interview with CitiNews, Mr Ampem stated that his colleagues will be educated on bird flu and how to prevent other birds from getting infected.

He said, “First and foremost, we are going to educate our farmers on the need to heighten their biosecurity… then we are also going to educate people buying from [them]...More importantly, we encourage our members to reduce the movement of birds especially as Tuesday is a holiday, and we are going to have Eid-ul-Adha.”

“We are going to encourage that some of these things are really monitored so that we do not transfer the flu from one region to another, but it is contained in the districts and regions where they are found,” he added.

The outbreak of the bird flu comes days after poultry farmers complained about the unavailability of maize, soya, and wheat.

Mr. Ampem noted that poultry farmers are going through a tough time now because of these two major challenges.

He pleaded for government to come to their aid by paying attention to the poultry industry to save over 1,000 businesses from collapsing.

He also said the shortage of poultry feed needs to be fixed as soon as possible to keep them in business.