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Poultry farmers in Kano State have dismissed reports of a widespread outbreak of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), commonly known as bird flu, as inaccurate.
They confirmed a single isolated case on one farm but stated that no other farms have reported any instances of the disease.
Dr. Usman Gwarzo, Chairman of the Poultry Farmers Association, urged the government to reinstate quarantine services to prevent the introduction of infected birds from other regions into Kano State. He said that the situation is not an endemic outbreak.
“I am a medical epidemiologist,” Gwarzo explained. “When you consider an outbreak, it is when it involves more than one farm. But in
Kano, none of the farms reported any sudden death of birds, and so it is a single incident.”
Gwarzo outlined the association’s response to the isolated case, stating, “But naturally, to protect our investment and the health of our population, we started engaging with our members to take care of risk factors, and the commonest factor in Kano is market-market, market-farm interaction where people go to sell chicken, and you know naturally, in some settings, sick birds are commonly taken to sell in the markets. So, it is a very serious issue.
“We had a bad case in 2016, the last time a massive outbreak occurred in Kano. The message I want to send is that we are not in an emergency situation. None of our 800 members reported unusual death of birds.”
Poultry traders in Kano corroborated the farmers’ statements, asserting that they were unaware of any bird flu outbreak.
They added that state health authorities regularly fumigate markets and conduct checks for animal diseases.
