[ 2017-05-16 ]

Poultry farmers across the country have threatened not to report any cases of bird flu incidence

Poultry farmers threaten to sell flu infected birds
Poultry farmers across the country have threatened
not to report any cases of bird flu incidence on
their farms for fear that their birds will be
culled and compensation will not be paid to them.

This follows the inability of the government to
pay the farmers about GH¢11 million as
compensation for culling 111,000 birds during the
Avian influenza (bird flu) outbreak two years
ago.

Already, some of the farmers have carried out
their threat and are rushing infected birds to the
market for sale as soon as they detect signs of
bird flu on their farms.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Food,
Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs approved GH¢11
million as compensation for the poultry farmers
whose birds were culled (destroyed). Out of the
amount, the farmers claim only GH¢1 million was
paid as compensation to 25 farmers.

The Graphic Business has gathered also that most
of the farmers have decided to defy the reporting
regime and now send their birds to the market as
soon as they see signs of the disease in their
farms, regardless that the disease is a deadly
strain of a virus that attacks poultry and is
fatal for human consumption.

The deadly H5N1 virus or bird flu has killed
people worldwide, particularly in Asia and the
Middle East, since 2013.

Cost so far

The Veterinary Services Directorate of the
Ministry of Food and Agricultural (MoFA) has
described the development as unfortunate because
it was likely to lead to an epidemic if the
government did not act fast.

Available figures from the Veterinary Services
Directorate show that the disease has affected
about 66 poultry farms across the country as of
May this year, with the recent occurrence in
January.

So far, the country has lost huge sums of money
due to the culling of 111,000 birds, various
quantities of eggs and some bags of feed since the
outbreak was first recorded in May 2015.

Farmers on government’s throat

The Secretary of the Techiman Poultry Farmers
Association, Mr Emmanuel Soglizu, who spoke to the
Graphic Business in Accra, blamed the government
for not doing enough to support the ailing poultry
industry.

He stated that the government had not provided the
needed support in the creation of awareness on the
disease since its outbreak two years ago.

Mr Soglizu minced no words when he announced plans
of the farmers to defy the reporting regime as a
protest against the government to cough the rest
of the funds earmarked for compensation.

“After all, they (government) can only know
about the disease when we the farmers report it to
them. Therefore, we are going to advise
ourselves,” he said.

He noted that if robust measures were not
implemented to halt the spread of the highly
pathogenic Avian influenza, the poultry industry
would collapse.

The secretary, therefore, called on the government
to provide a detailed explanation as to how the
funds earmarked for the compensation was used to
combat the disease.

Affected farmers

An affected farmer, Mr Abraham Odei Tetteh,
recounted how he lost his entire poultry farm as a
result of the disease, with a firm assurance of
receiving compensation, but said he had still not
received anything from the government two years
after the outbreak.

That situation, he indicated, had totally
collapsed his poultry business.

“I am a pensioner and I have children in school.
Poultry farming is my only source of income and
now that all my birds have been destroyed I cannot
tell how I will be able to survive,” Mr Tetteh
said with sorrow.

He said he would join any action to press home his
concerns to put pressure on the government for the
compensation to be paid.

Another farmer, Mr John Attipoe, who also lost his
birds through government’s measures to control
the disease, said the compensation was needed to
help farmers settle their debts.

“If the essence of the compensation was to
enable the beneficiaries invest the funds back
into poultry production, why then are they keeping
our money,” he quizzed.

“For me, the Veterinary Services Directorate
destroyed about 20,000 of my birds and promised
the government will compensate me but until now I
have not heard anything again from either the
government or the directorate,” Mr Attipoe
said.

Veterinary loses moral right

When contacted, the Deputy Chief Veterinary
Officer of the Veterinary Service Directorate, Dr
Kingsley Micky Aryee, said the government’s
inaction on paying compensation to the farmers was
undermining the operations of the health
supervisory directorate of the industry.

“Looking at the trend ofevent for the past two
years, the Veterinary Service Directorate does not
have the moral right to go out there and tell any
farmer to do this or that because their birds were
culled and they have not been compensated,” he
stressed.

Asked about the threat issued by poultry farmers
not to report cases of the disease, he said it was
quit unfortunate, but the situation might lead to
a likely epidemic if the government did not take
action.

“In fact, the farmers on a number of occasions
have told us they will not report the incidence
anymore, and they will restock their farms
contrary to the directive for them to stop as part
of measures to control the disease,” he said.

Essence of compensation

Dr Aryee said the introduction of the compensation
was to help encourage poultry farmers to report
any outbreak of the bird flu early and contribute
to efforts to contain the disease.

According to him, the government was fully aware
of the importance of the compensation payment to
affected poultry farmers in the wake of the
outbreak of bird flu in the country.

All efforts to reach the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture (MoFA) to react to the issue did not
yield fruit.

Source - Graphic.com.gh

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