PAN warns the general public as bird flu resurfaces on HWN BIRD FLU UPDATE

To avert another bird flu outbreak, the chairman of Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) in Plateau, John Dasar, warned everyone to ensure strict bio-security measures.

Speaking with press in Jos on Saturday, Dasar said the investigations showed that the disease had resurfaced in Kano and some states in the South West.

He urged the farmers to adopt stringent bio-security measures to forestall the outbreak of the disease as poultry products travel from one part of the country to another.

Bird flu is one of the fastest spreading diseases in Nigeria. This is because poultry products are being moved from one point to another and from state to state, Dasar said.

The last time the disease began in Lagos around January 8 2015 and in 10 days it was already recorded in Plateau, meaning that within the span of this short time it had reached out this far.

Reports have it that the disease has shown its ugly head in Kano and some states in the South West, so the need for our farmers to be reminded to take their bio-security more seriously, he said.

According to the chairman, a lot of farmers suffered during the last outbreak of the disease in the state, and PAN would not allow such an ugly incidence to affect its members again.

We are calling on farmers not to relax on adhering strictly to bio-security measures because Nigeria is not yet free of bird flu, he stated.

Since June 2015, no case of the disease had reportedly been discovered in the state.  Dasar commended the efforts of the farmers who kept to terms with the tenets of poultry business.

In 2015, Plateau became one of the states that was hit the most by an outbreak of bird flu, which left the state with more than 160 farms closed down and 400,000 birds destroyed.