Nigeria loses over N10b to bird flu

“Nigeria has lost over N10billion to the outbreak of avian influenza otherwise known as bird flu in poultry farms located in 21 states across the country,” the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has said.

The Director-General of PAN, Mr. Onallo Akpa said the losses were incurred between January and September, this year, lamenting that the outbreak of bird flu led to the depopulation of about 1.7million birds.

Mr. Akpa, who spoke to reporters in Abuja yesterday, added that each of the bird had an average economic value of about N7, 000.

He urged the Federal Government to re-consider its decision to suspend payment of compensation to poultry farmers who lost their investments as a result of the outbreak of the disease.

The Federal Government had last week announced that bird flu was recorded in 491 poultry farms in Nigeria and stated that it would henceforth stop the payment of monetary claims to farmers because the compensation package had made them to relax in complying with stipulated bio-security measures.

He said:  “We have about 1.7million laying birds that have been depopulated as a result of this outbreak. So to calculate the direct economic loss, if you take this figure and multiply it at the rate of N5, 000 which is the economic value of one laying bird, you will realise that Nigeria has lost over N10billion.

“This is the direct loss to the Nigerian economy. It does not include the job losses and other ancillary services that are linked to the business. So if the government is paying a compensation of N1.1billion, is that substantial enough?

“It might interest you to know that the Nigerian poultry industry alone needs two million metric tons of maize and almost one million metric tons of soya beans on an annual basis. Do you know the economic value of these crops to the Nigerian crop farmers?”

On the suspension of compensation to farmers, he said: “If government says there is no compensation, then the situation is going to be worsened. Because no matter how paltry the compensation is, farmers are encouraged to report suspicious diseases that they don’t know whenever it occurs.

“When you report and government officials come to the farm and find out that it is avian influenza, the whole farm will be taken over and depopulated. So, the chance of spreading the virus to another nearby farms is minimised.”

He added that instead of suspending compensation to poultry farmers and passing blames, the federal government should call for a stakeholders meeting where inputs will be made on how to tackle the problem.