The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, yesterday, said it had placed its field officers at borders close to Cameroun and Ghana on red alert to check outbreak of Monkeypox in Nigeria.

The minister, Dr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, while briefing the press, yesterday, in Abuja, on the preparedness of the ministry, said field officers in the South South and the South West geo-political regions had been alerted to be on the look out, adding that his ministry would activate its contingency plan on zoonotic disease in the event of a pandemic.

He said the ministry is collaborating with the Ministry of Health, Nigeria Immigration Service and other relevant agencies in this respect, explaining that the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Officers at the airports and seaports had also been vigilant about importation of live monkeys or any other animal that could be carrier of the disease.

The minister stressed that the alert “is premised on the reported outbreaks of Monkeypox in 12-member countries of the World Health Organisation (WHO), comprising Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

Others are: Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

He explained that the virus is a zoonotic infectious disease that was first detected in monkeys, pointing out that rodents “are now seen as possible means of transmission of the disease to man and animals.”

Abubakar continued: “Monkeypox is primarily a disease of non-human primates like chimpanzees.”