Bird flu now in 11 states —FG

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina

The Federal Government on Wednesday announced that the avian influenza virus, also known as bird flu, is now present in 11 states of the federation. 

The government confirmed the presence of the virus in four other states apart from the seven states earlier reported on January 22, 2015. The seven states earlier reported were Kano, Lagos, Ogun, Delta, Rivers, Edo and Plateau.

At a meeting with commissioners of agriculture from the 36 states of the federation, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, listed the additional states where the flu had spread to as Oyo, Jigawa, Gombe and Imo.

The minister said the total number of birds exposed had risen to 232,385 and that 51,444 mortalities had been recorded.

He said Kano had the highest exposure rate of birds. He put the number of birds exposed in the state at 136,905 with 17,987 mortality level, while Lagos State had 38,845 birds exposed with 4,732 mortality level.

Adesina also announced a compensation of N145.14m to 39 farmers in the 11 affected states where de-population of the birds had been carried out by the Federal Government.

“The 11 states are Kano, Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Delta, Edo, Plateau, Gombe, Imo, Oyo and Jigawa,” he said.

According to the minister, the compensation is to ensure that farmers do not lose their businesses as a result of the devastation by the virus.

He said, “We will do everything to ensure that we protect our poultry industry from this particular situation. So, I want to announce here that effective from today, the compensation of a total amount of N145.145m will be paid to 39 affected farmers across the 11 states.

“In all this, the entire N145.145m will be paid out to the farmers and we have the list of all the farms. We have actually collected all the information and this amount will cover the farms where we have done de-population.

“In all these farms, we have done a de-population of 100,100 birds in which there had been a total exposure of 144,589 birds. So we have the farms that have been de-populated. I say 100,100 birds and some of these farms even before we started our de-population had some mortality of about 44,489. This is a very decisive measure that we are taking to make sure that those affected farms do not go under.”