‘Poultry farmers must take ownership of bird flu’

What do you think of the new outbreak of bird flu in this country?Well, one, it portrays our state of unpreparedness in this country. Two, it portrays our state of lack of sustainability in our fight against these diseases. The expectation was that we were going to sustain the fight against the disease, especially because […]

What do you think of the new outbreak of bird flu in this country?
Well, one, it portrays our state of unpreparedness in this country. Two, it portrays our state of lack of sustainability in our fight against these diseases. The expectation was that we were going to sustain the fight against the disease, especially because the federal government is trying very hard to promote agriculture. Veterinarians and people in poultry production are expected to sustain the type of efforts that is needed.
Some farmers are asking if there are vaccines or any technology that can be adopted by farmers to forestall the disease’s reoccurrence.
There are diseases that we don’t vaccinate against. The key thing is the control of the disease through government policies. There are governments, like in Egypt, that advocate for policies of vaccination, but our problem with vaccination in this country is that if you do not take time, you will have birds that will continue to shed-off the disease and that is the more reason why when we adopted the non-vaccination in the previous infection, we quickly contained spread of the disease. Because when you vaccinate, you are trying to control the disease and you are accepting to live with some traces of that disease. So, the policy that the government adopted during the first outbreak was extermination of the disease and we succeeded. This time, people are still advocating for vaccination but the government has not yet consented to vaccination.
Is there a unit that handles vaccines development at the NVRI?
Yes we have a separate unit in the National Veterinary Research Institute that is dealing with research and all the production of vaccines, but we have not yet started talking about developing vaccines here because our policy does not even favour vaccination. If our policy had favoured vaccination in the first place, we would have said let’s give it a try. Do we have the money to go into research in this country for vaccination? We do superficial research because research is capital intensive. If you investigate very well as a journalist and go round these research institutes, you will find out that a research institute that does not even have in a year one billion naira cannot do a thorough research. In this institute we have real intentions to go into vaccine production-from research to actual production- but the money is not there. The research institutes all over the country complain about the same thing. So most of these research institutes-be it pharmaceutical, veterinary, human, the constraint we have is that of resources to actually conduct research. If you go to Kenya, we have our personnel there and they are doing very well in research. But why are we not able to do this research? If under the White man we were able to develop vaccines here in Vom, let’s ask ourselves what went wrong? Certainly, not the personnel, it is the funding.
So what can be done to stop the re-occurrence of this outbreak?
For every disease, you must develop pathways for it eradication.
So, what pathways are we talking about?
Pathways are policies initiated to guide your actions to reach your target. If our target is to eliminate a disease with economic implications then, we need to look at the nature of the disease, understand the etymology of the disease. By etymology I mean what is the source of the disease and how can we prevent it. If we want to eliminate a bacteria disease the pathway is different, if you want to eliminate a viral disease, the path way is different.
What do farmers need to do now that they are facing a threat?
I was in Kaduna recently where I addressed the Poultry Association of Nigeria members. It was a very frank discussion that I had with them, and I told them I want it noted, everybody should know this: this disease is not a threat to the veterinary profession, it is not a threat to the government officials, it is not a threat to the president, but it is a threat to the farmers. So, the farmer must take ownership of that disease. They must own that disease. Now, how do you own it? You own it by recognising the potential danger in that disease. If you hold it loosely, it affects you, because the first target is the owner. I told them that their farm is not a tourist centre. I said so because there is the likelihood that you when you have a visitor, you ask him to come and see your birds and, that way, you are exposing your birds. Everything that is considered as capable of introducing Avian Influenza, the farmer must make sure it does not come near him. You must own the veterinarian that is looking at your farm.
As a member of the Veterinary Council of Nigeria, is there anything that you are doing at the council to ensure that this disease does not spread further or that the farms that were already affected are brought under control?
Yes. At the level of the Veterinary Council we are monitoring our entire colleagues on the field. We have insisted that whatever report that they send to the veterinary services department we must also have that report in order to continue to monitor our personnel. Registered veterinary practicing premises are asked to update us on a regular basis. As far as the veterinary profession is concerned, there is already an order to stamp it out. Our personnel are empowered to go to the field, identify the disease and report and then a team will be sent under the supervision of the director of the Veterinary Council of Nigeria to fight the disease. Now once those birds are stamped out, the government has approved that there should be some form of compensation in order for the affected farmer not to be pushed out of business. We introduced compensation because we do not want somebody to look at his investment as going astray and, overnight, slaughters his birds, package them and go and sell them. So, if we want to control the disease, compensation is important.