The Veterinary Service Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has placed a ban on the sale and movement of live birds to prevent the spread of the Avian influenza popularly known as Bird Flu.
A poultry farm in Kpone was, early on, quarantined following the detection of the deadly Bird Flu.
Two poultry farms with a total of 3,600 birds at Denu and Keta in the Volta Region were also destroyed due to infections on the farms.
[contextly_sidebar id=”OcjEtFfXTWYkb7GzwaoSWA8WERXcQbnE”]The poultry farm at Keta started with 1,800 but before it came to the notice of veterinary officers 1,100 had died and 700 had also died at Denu within three days.
The Veterinary Service Department in statement advised “the general public and especially cockerel and pullers vendors to cease the movement from place to place” as it poses a threat to both humans and birds.
The statement also asked security services and the public to co-operate with the directive.
Meanwhile two of the outbreaks in Greater Accra Region have been linked to these street vendors.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture earlier banned the importation of poultry products from both Burkina Faso and Nigeria as a result of the outbreak of flu in those countries.
It however appears measures taken by government to forestall an outbreak and spread in Ghana proved fruitless.
In May 2015 there were reported cases of an outbreak of the virus on a farm in Achimota and in Tema.
The samples taken from these farms and tested by the Accra Veterinary Laboratory and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research proved positive.
The Ministry sent the samples to the OIE Laboratory in Italy for further tests and samples of reported cases taken to the laboratory proved positive.
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah