‘Bird flu outbreaks may worsen poultry farmers’ woes’

• Experts advise farmers to emplace biosecurity, boost immunity

Experts in the poultry industry have warned that outbreaks of avian influenza (bird flu) will worsen and compound challenges in the poultry subsector and ancillary businesses.

In animals, heat stress can result in lower productivity (loss of weight/slow weight gain in ruminants and broilers; fewer and smaller eggs) and fertility (breeders), and it can also have negative effects on the immune system, making them more prone to certain diseases, such as Avian Influenza.

On January 18, 2022, a case of Avian Influenza outbreak was reported at Sutawa, Lere, Kaduna State, with over 14,000 birds and mortality of 4,000, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Ibrahim Hussaini, during a stakeholders’ meeting with the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), said the affected farms, involving over 100,000 birds, were located in Chikun, Igabi and Lere.

On January 19, 2022, farmers in Kano State raised the alarm over cases of bird flu that reportedly claimed thousands of birds in the state.

About eight main poultry farms were affected and thousands of birds killed as a result of the outbreak. Confirming the outbreak, the Director Livestock at the state’s Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Bello Bala, said samples from the affected farms established an outbreak of bird flu.

Also, on January 23, 2022 poultry farmers in Plateau State expressed concern about the spread of bird flu. The spokesman of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) in Plateau State, Nanji Gambo-Oke, said the flu had reached about three local government areas and affected about six farms.

The industry has been faced with input challenges, including high cost of day-old chicks, expensive feeds and reliance on imported additives and vitamins.

A chief factor fuelling high cost of feeds is inadequate production of basic ingredients of maize and soybeans, compounded by restricted importation of agricultural raw materials.

Maize is widely consumed as a staple, industrial raw material and feedstuff in the country, but slightly above half of what is needed is produced locally, causing increasing constant price increase and feeds crisis in the poultry and livestock industries.

The national PAN has often called on government at all levels to restrict, just as it does for importation, export of locally produced maize and soybeans.

Meanwhile the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Muhammed Abubakar, has said the country consumes 1.8 million metric tonnes of poultry meat yearly but produces only 551,000 metric tonnes.

He disclosed that “Nigeria is the largest yearly egg producer and the second-largest chicken population in Africa, with about 180 million birds being raised. Of these, about 44 per cent are raised in extensive systems, 33 per cent in semi-intensive and 23 per cent in intensive systems,” he said.

He also disclosed that about 85 million Nigerians are involved in the poultry value chain businesses, especially in the intensive system producing eggs and poultry meat.

Oguntola Temitayo, State Administrative Secretary, PAN Ogun State, said high cost of production inputs such as feed materials, finished feeds, essential raw materials (maize & soya), insecurity, non-standardisation of ingredients, high cost of day-old-chicks, absence of farm input subsidy and multiple taxation imposed on poultry and allied businesses by government agencies were already driving thousands of farmers out of business.

He added that agricultural financing by financial houses and banks are not readily available, saying outbreak of bird flu would aggravate the challenges of the farmers.

However, while advising farmers, the National Sales Manager, Egg (Layers) Business Unit, BD Agriculture Nig Ltd, Lagos, a subsidiary of Big Dutchman International Germany, Temitope Oyadeyi, explained that bird flu remains a global pandemic of the poultry industry, and that outbreaks could further spell woes for Nigerian poultry farmers who are already bedevilled with rising costs of inputs.

“Hence, all hands must be on deck by every poultry farmer in the country to prevent outbreaks. The good thing about the prevention is the simplicity of the procedures, but must be doggedly followed,” he said.

Oyadeyi said the fundamental biosecurity requirement in the prevention of bird-flu is traffic control – humans and animals, adding: “People who do not have any essential business to do on the farmer should be denied entry while stray birds are adequately prevented from accessing the pen houses.”

He also advised that the steps must be accompanied with adequate sanitation on the farm.

“Pen houses sanitation, aerial sanitation, equipment sanitation, hand washing and foot dipping before entering the pen houses” Oyadeyi, added, “are all essential in prevention of bird-flu outbreaks.”