Bird flu spreads to Ogun

Ogun State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs. Ronke Sokefun, has confirmed that samples from Sango, Sagamu and Ifo live birds market tested positive to the highly pathogenic Avian Influenza, otherwise known as H5N1 or bird flu.



The commissioner said samples of birds taken from another poultry farm on Obalende-Ikangba Road in the Odogbolu Local Government Area of the state had also tested positive.

The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, had on January 21, according to newspaper reports listed Ogun State as one of the seven states harbouring the bird flu virus.

Sokefun said the discovery was made after a state-wide surveillance and live bird market decontamination exercise initiated along the border towns of Sango, Ifo, Akute, Sagamu, and Mowe-Ibafo axis, considering their nearness to Lagos.

She said, “Other markets in Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode, Ilaro and Ayetoro were not left out.”

She said the samples were sent to the National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, near Jos in Plateau State.

Sokefun, however, said there was no cause for the residents to panic as the state government had been taken measures that would ensure the protection of public health and safety of the citizenry.

She said, “Our officers have been able to contain the disease at the three markets and we are on the lookout for more of such outbreaks through the surveillance systems of the veterinary department of the ministry that is implementing disease containment measures of the state government.

“We are working closely with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the National Veterinary Research Institute. We are also collaborating with the Poultry Association of Nigeria, Ogun State branch; and the Ministry of Health, among others.”

The chairman of PAN in Ogun State, Dr. Olalekan Odunsi, said the association, in conjunction with other neighbouring state chapters, had held stakeholders meeting on ways to contain the virus.

He said, “We have sent SMS to our members on advocacy and the need for them to take preventive measures on their farms.

“There is no need to panic. The areas affected are under surveillance.”