Bird flu kills 11,000 birds in 6 Plateau farms


The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) in Plateau, said on Monday that avian influenza or bird flu, has resurfaced in the state, killing more than 11,000 birds in one week.

The association’s chairman in the state, Mr John Dasar, who made this disclosure in Jos, said six farms had so far been depopulated.

Bird flu or avian flu, is an infectious type of influenza that spreads among birds.

Dasar attributed the fast spread of the disease to the non-payment of compensation to farmers affected by the disease in 2015 and 2016.

He said some farmers would prefer to sell their affected birds to desperate marketers instead of reporting the incident to the appropriate authorities.

NAN reports that more than 130 poultry farmers were affected by the disease in 2015 and 2016 but they had yet to be compensated.

“Farmers in Plateau are really going through tough times because of the resurgence of bird flu in the last one week.

“In one week, six poultry farms were depopulated and no fewer than 11,000 birds were culled.

“The main concern here is that most farmers don’t report the outbreak of the disease in their farms.

“They prefer to sell their birds to marketers rather than wait for government’s compensation that will never come.

“The non-reporting aids the fast spread of the disease because of the movement of the infected birds from one point to the other.

“So, all we do is when we get wind of an outbreak in any farm, we alert government’s officials to take immediate action,’’ Dasar said.

The chairman, however, called on the affected poultry farmers in the state to be patient, as modalities were on ground to ensure that they get compensations.

“We were with the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, a month ago and he promised that something would be done in no distant time; to ensure that compensations are paid,’’ he said.


He, however, urged the farmers to report any outbreak in their farms to the appropriate authorities so as to avert any further spread of the disease in the state.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit...
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultura...
Read more

Monsanto Nigeria Launches 3 Conventional Maize Hybrids

Maize farmers across Nigeria now have 3 high yielding conventional maize hybrids to choose from the DEKALB ® brand as Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited launches 3 conventional maize hybrids. The launch held in Abuja on Tuesday May 17 2016 had in attendance farmers, development partners, government regulatory bodies and other stakeholders from both the private and public sectors of the economy. The launch of these hybrid seeds follows their registration by the National Committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds and Fisheries in February 2016. The white maize hybrid, DK234 alongside the 2 yellow maize hybrids, DK920 and DK818 obtained registration approval for use in Nigeria after testing across various agro ecological zones on multi-location farms. The white maize hybrid DK234 with yield potential of 13 tonnes per hectare is well adapted for the Southern and Northern Guinea Savanna ecologies and shows tolerance to Maize Streak Virus, ...
Read more