‘Poultry farmers lost N10b to outbreak of bird flu’

The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has said that its members may have suffered economic loss to the tune of N10billion since the outbreak of bird flu in January 2015.

Director General (PAN) Onallo Akpa, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja while speaking to newsmen, explained that with the depopulation of 1.5milliion birds since outbreak of bird flu in January 8, and if one laying-bird is worth N5000, then poultry farmers may have lost N10billion.

According to him, it is wrong for government to blame farmers for spread of the diseases as no farmer will want to loose any bird, especially laying-birds, that has an economic value of N5000 so that he could get paltry government compensation of N500 per bird.

Akpa, who noted that the outbreak has affected most of the medium and large scale farmers, said: “I don’t believe that a farmer that has investment to the tune of N5million will not afford to buy a disinfectant of N1000 to protect his birds”.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Sonny Echono, while briefing the media recently had accused the poultry farmers of not maintaining good hygiene and keeping to biosafety measures to protect their birds from the viral disease. He said veterinary officers have observed that during the period of May-July when government stopped compensation, there were no reported cases of bird flu, but as soon as government started, farmers started reporting cases of outbreak.