The Ministry of Agriculture is making a tremendous effort to guard against ‘Bird Flu’ (H5NI Avian Influenza) of which there is an outbreak in neighboring Suriname.
Speaking with the Department of Public Information on Thursday, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha noted that he was officially informed earlier this week by the World Health Animal Organisation.
“When I heard about the rumors I started to put things in place, as a matter of fact, I activate a multi stakeholder committee that is meeting very regularly, sometimes twice per week, sometimes. We have the GLDA, which is of course, taking the lead but we have a number of other organisations,” Minister Mustapha stated.
The other organisations that are part of the stakeholder committee include the Civil Defense Commission, the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Revenue Authority, and the Poultry Producers Association.
“… We have since also increased farm surveillance across the country, especially in Region Six. The quarantine section at Moleson creek has been strengthened tremendously, and there are also some unofficial sites where normally vessels come across from Suriname. We are also strengthening those areas to ensure that we don’t have any of those poultry products comes across to our country,” Minister Mustapha stated.
The minister noted that there are 1,025 farms around the regions, with 24 plucking shops. Currently, there are over 4 million birds in Regions Four, Five and Six.
“We are monitoring it on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, I have increased the extension services in the GLDA and the NPPO Staff plus the NAREI Staff are also complementing the GLDA Staff. So, we have put intense mechanism in place to strengthen surveillance around the country. We are also doing a lot of random testing in various parts of the regions so hopefully we will not have an outbreak here,” he said.
He stated that systems are being put in place to ensure that all farms are up to standard in their hygiene.
Apart from meeting on a regular basis, there is increased presence at official and unofficial ports.
“We are ensuring that our labs are in a state of readiness in case of any eventuality,” he said to DPI.
The minister said, “I want to assure the public out there that the government has been working through the ministry of agriculture, through GLDA auspiciously to ensure that we don’t have an outbreak in our country because that is a very dangerous disease and it could disseminate our population in our poultry industry”.
The stakeholder committee is expected to create and distribute brochures shortly to make the public aware of the symptoms and what they should look for in their birds.
He said there are 6 tunnel ventilated pens with 40 thousand birds being produced every six weeks and another 10 is expected to be established before the end of the year.
“I’m working very hard to ensure that we have maximum production of these products in the country,” he stated.
Common bird flu (avian influenza) symptoms in chickens include sudden death, lethargy, loss of appetite, respiratory distress (coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge), swelling or purple discoloration of the comb and wattles, diarrhea, neurological signs like loss of coordination, and a sudden drop in egg production. (Department of Public Information)
