Donors meet to support control of Avian Flu

Accra, June 1, GNA - The country's weaknesses in veterinary infrastructure would make the trans-boundary spread of the Avian Flu inevitable unless it was rapidly brought under control and eliminated, Food and Agriculture Minister Ernest Debrah said on Friday. He said the country would need about 2. 8 million dollars to control the spread of the disease which has hit some parts of the country and another 14 million dollars should it spread to other parts of the country.

Speaking at a donors meeting on Bird Flu in Accra, the Agriculture Minister appealed to donors for assistance to implement a six-month emergency Action Plan to ensure that there was no more H5N1 Virus circulation out of the infected areas, to re-establish the disease free status of infected areas and prevent further introduction of the disease.

The Action Plan he noted, was in line with the country's preparedness and response plan for Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza 2005-2006 that had been drafted by his Ministry in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), to put in place timely interventions to avoid the development and establishment of a more serious situation in the near future.

The expected results of the Plan he said, were to deal with early warning signs and rapid response, re-establishing Ghana's free status and maintaining increased public awareness as well as safeguarding poultry health from the threat of the disease. Mr Debrah noted that the country was faced with constraints, which included weak animal disease surveillance and information system, weak veterinary diagnostic capacities, low level of bio security on farms, surveillance and control of disease and inadequate logistics for depopulation and decontamination.

He explained that the setbacks were affecting the implementation of the strategy recommended by FAO and called for active surveillance and compensation to farmers whose birds would be culled as part of the control measures.

Ghana recorded the first case of avian influenza on April 28 in Tema, where about 2,000 birds were destroyed. This was followed by second and third cases in the same municipality where 11, 743 and 310 chickens respectively were affected.

Another outbreak occurred in new Dormaa, a suburb in Sunyani in the Borng Ahafo Region, which was described as one of the most important sites for poultry and products farms with 190 commercial poultry farms and an estimated chicken population of about 1.7 million birds. The Veterinary Services Directorate of the Agriculture Ministry acted swiftly to control and contain the spread of the disease. The development partners including FAO, USAID, EU and CIDA commended Ghana for the swift measures put in place to address the situation when there was an outbreak and pledged their support in the form of cash and technical assistance to safeguard human health, livelihood of families and the poultry industry from the threat of the disease. 01 June 07