‘Bird flu did not emanate from the North’

However the chairman, Kano State Poultry Farmers Association (PAN), Dr. Muhammad Auwal Haruna rebuffed the agitation that the disease was spread through farm products from the North, saying bird flu did not emanate from the region. According to him, no one could say precisely how the bird flu came into the country, adding that the […]

However the chairman, Kano State Poultry Farmers Association (PAN), Dr. Muhammad Auwal Haruna rebuffed the agitation that the disease was spread through farm products from the North, saying bird flu did not emanate from the region.
According to him, no one could say precisely how the bird flu came into the country, adding that the disease could have been from alien birds and other transmitting means.
“No one can tell you precisely how it got into this country, as alien birds fly in and out of the country at will. It could also be through other means but the assertion that it was spread through products from affected farms in the North is not true. This is not time to apportion blames but time to take actions on curtailing the spread and successfully wipe out the disease from the system,” said Dr. Haruna.
Director, Veterinary Services of the Kano State Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Shehu Bawa, stated that though the spread has increased from the initial seven farms to about 20, the situation is still under control.
He said the speed of the spread has been curtailed as it was discovered that most of the affected farms are located in a single cluster and that only few cases were recorded outside the affected cluster.
“Though we have recorded an increase in the spread from an initial 7 farms to 20 farms, we have succeeded in depopulating about 18 farms so far and we have also reduced the spread as most cases were recorded in a cluster. We have put in place surveillance measures, quarantine measures and movement restriction to avoid spread,” said Dr. Bawa.