Government has placed a ban on the importation of poultry from within and outside the West African sub-region to avert the spread of the bird flu outbreak in the country, according to Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture. The deputy minister warned that, any importer who attempts to bring poultry into the country would be prosecuted and veterinary officers of the Ministry are on high alert across the nation’s borders to ensure that the ban will fully be enforced. This came due to an outbreak which started in Nigeria in 2014 and had gradually spread to Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast and Ghana. The H5N1 strain of the bird flu is the type that can be transmitted from infected bird’s droppings to human and within humans, the virus is capable of mutating into more complex forms. The outbreak has already affected poultry farms in Volta Region, Ashanti and the Greater Accra Regions. The government has voted U$473,933 as compensation package for affected farmers whose farms were destroyed as part of efforts to control the spread of the disease in the country. When birds on an infected farm are destroyed, it has to be fumigated and allowed to remain fallow for a minimum period of six months before poultry production could resume. It is advisable that Ghanaians should buy their live poultry from certified credible farms, disclosed the deputy minister.
http://www.agribusinessafrica.net/index.php/2666-ghana-adopts-tough-measures-to-contain-bird-flu
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