Dormaa poultry farmers monitor outbreak of Avian Influenza

Mr Dei Kusi, the chairman of Dormaa Poultry Farmers Association, has said the association was carefully monitoring development about the outbreak of Avian Influenza among poultry birds in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions.

  He said the association was working to avoid infections, saying a meeting to help address the issue had been scheduled for Thursday to provide further guidance and directions to farmers.

   Mr Kusi who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Dormaa-Ahenkro in the Dormaa Central Municipality of the Bono Region said information was being posted and shared on the association’s WhatsApp group platform to allow members to adhere to bio-security measures and guidelines to prevent the spread of the disease.

 “We are envisaging and expecting that after the meeting, farmers will share and spread whatever is learnt with other farmers in their neighbourhood who might not have participated in the meeting,” Mr Kusi added.

  He said other people in the poultry value chain such as drivers plying Dormaa-Ahenkro to Accra and vice-versa would be given knapsack sprayers and disinfectants to spray their vehicles so as not to become agents to transmit the disease from Accra to Dormaa-Ahenkro.

  In a related interview, Madam Helena Wemegah, the Dormaa Central Municipal Veterinary Officer, said though the disease was not yet reported in the municipality, her office was ensuring strict inspection and issuance of permits to cover the movement of all poultry and poultry products to and from Dormaa-Ahenkro and other parts of the country to certify that the products were not infected with the disease.

  She appealed to the farmers and the public to report any unusual death of domestic poultry and wild birds to the nearest veterinary office for immediate control to prevent further incidence. 

  Mad. Wemegah again urged poultry farmers, their workers and the public to avoid the handling of dead birds with bare hands and also consume only well-cooked poultry meat and eggs.  GNA