No bird-flu in Brong Ahafo – Veterinary Officer

The Brong-Ahafo Region does not have the Bird Flu disease, Dr Saviour Denueme, the Regional Veterinary Officer, has said.

Dr Denueme, who was addressing a meeting of the Dormaa Poultry Farmers Association at Dormaa-Ahenkro in the Brong-Ahafo Region, explained that the Regional, Municipal and District offices of the Veterinary Services Department (VSD) under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), as part of their surveillance has found no trace of the disease.

The meeting attended by about 30 participants, comprising poultry farmers, transporters and sellers was to update them on the bird-flu situation in the country.

Dr Denueme said as part of measures to prevent the outbreak of the disease, a new permit for poultry and its related products has been introduced, saying without a permit justifying a clearance that either birds or eggs being transported were free of bird flu, they would be destroyed when intercepted.

He appealed to poultry farmers to observe and stick strictly to the control and preventive measures against the occurrence of the disease to ensure that the Dormaa enclave and the whole Region remains a free and safe zone for the poultry industry.

Dr Yaw Fenteng Danso, Epidemiologist in charge of the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo and Eastern Regions, reminded farmers on the need to establish a functional footpath with virucidal disinfectant in front of their farms, ensure human and animal movement control, as well as washing of hands with soap when they touch any sick/dead birds on the farm.

He urged the farmers to report all cases of dead/sick birds to the veterinary office or a directorate of MoFA and stressed that “farmers, sellers and transporters must not transport eggs and birds from the Cote D’Ivoire to Ghana”.

He said preventing the outbreak of bird-flu is a multi-stakeholder approach because it is both health, social and economic challenge to individual consumers of eggs and birds.