Showing posts with label Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Bird Flu: All Eyes On Nigeria?

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Recently (January 2015), Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina,   confirmed the outbreak of bird flu in eleven states of the federation. The states affected are Kano, Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Delta, Edo, Plateau, Gombe, Imo, Oyo and Jigawa states.

Not many Nigerians even heard of the outbreak which could really be very disastrous if not properly managed. This was because the Federal Government not only immediately identified and depopulated the 39 farms affected by the flu in the eleven states, it also approved N145 million for the owners of the farms as compensation for the loss they suffered as a result of the depopulation exercise. As we know, depopulation is one of the most effective measures usually taken to control the spread of the avian flu. Each of the affected farms got N1.4 million which was disbursed within 72 hours of the killing of the infected and exposed birds.  We must also commend the owners of those farms for cooperating with the government to arrest the looming epidemic.

When it was reported that Nigeria had recorded “the first” human casualty from bird flu in 2007, a World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesperson, Gregory Hartl, said cases of humans contracting the H5N1 virus (which causes the bird flu) in Nigeria should come to no one as a surprise, considering the experience in a country like Indonesia, which, like Nigeria, has huge concentrations of poultry where human beings live.

“It does not change anything from a public health point of view. It had to happen sooner or later,” Hartl said.

The New Zealand Herald of February 1, 2007, quotes unnamed “experts” as identifying Nigeria as one of the countries that constitute the “weakest links in the global attempt to stem infections of birds.”