By Samuella Naa Oyoe Quartey.
The Veterinary Services Directorate says it is taking swift measures to contain the spread of the bird flu disease in the country.
Speaking to Journalists in Accra, the Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Patrick Abakeh urged farmers to cooperate with the directorate to stem the spread of the virus. Mr. Abakeh said farmers who have their birds destroyed as a result of the disease will be compensated, thus they should not fear reporting the situation to the Directorate.
Not too long ago, the Food and Agriculture Ministry through the Veterinary Services confirmed the outbreak of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza disease also known as bird flu in some parts of the country, particularly the Greater Accra, Central and Volta regions.
As a result of this, the Veterinary Services through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has taken swift measures making sure affected farms are disinfected, and also deploying Veterinary officers to various farms to ensure that birds confirmed positive of the flu are culled among other things.
The Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr. Patrick Abakeh said, “the directorate will continue to create awareness on the disease to contain it within the shortest possible time.’’
President of the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association, Madam Gifty Rodor appealed to the government to equip the Veterinary Services with logistics needed to contain the disease.
Madam Rodor highlighted some challenges confronting the poultry industry, with escalating price on the market as the topmost concern.
“Due to the increases in the price of feed ingredients, prices of eggs have gone up, with a crate of large sized eggs which were previously sold for 19 cedis is now selling at 24 cedis, a crate of medium sizes of eggs which sold 18cedis now sells at 22 cedis. The small sizes formerly selling at 16 cedis will now sell at 20 cedis. The unsorted eggs are going for 22cedis per crate and the poulet which previously sold at 14 cedis will now sell at 18cedis,” Madam Rodor announced.