One of Nigeria\u2019s most lucrative agricultural sectors, the Poultry industry, has been struck with the H5N1 virus more commonly known as the Bird Flu.<\/p>\n
Reports from the country\u2019s Ministry of Agriculture suggest that over 140,000 birds may have been exposed to the deadly disease.<\/p>\n
Over 21 farms spread across seven Nigerian states, including its commercial hub, Lagos have either recorded cases or been exposed to the disease, the report added.<\/p>\n
Authorities, according to\u00a0<\/em>ThisDay<\/strong><\/em>, believe the disease arrived in Lagos and Kano \u2013 the country\u2019s two biggest commercial communities in Nigeria \u2013 last week. One resident of Lagos state told Ventures\u00a0that the Lagos outbreak might have originated from a farm in Ajah, a small community\u00a0on the Lagos Island.<\/p>\n The poultry sector has seen tremendous growth in the last decade, growing faster than the oil, real estate, and telecommunication sectors combined. Nigeria\u2019s poultry market is now said to be worth $3.2 billion, according to figures from Business Day. .<\/p>\n Farmers and retailers alike are already feeling the heat. A local trader in Lagos explained to Ventures this week that the prices of live birds have collapsed 73 percent in less than a month to N800 ($4) from a Christmas high of N3000 ($15).<\/p>\n With chicken and eggs a frequent component\u00a0of the\u00a0average Nigerian meal, fears are rising across the food market.<\/p>\n Calming nerves<\/strong><\/p>\n Akinwumi Adesina, Nigeria\u2019s agriculture minister, has moved quickly to calm the nerves of Nigerians by revealing that all 21 farms with suspected cases have been quarantined and birds suspected of exposure have been culled.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the farms have been quarantined and decontaminated. Other locations in Ikorodu, Ojo and Lagos Mainland have already been quarantined, while awaiting confirmation.\u201d<\/p>\n He assured farmers and consumers that his ministry was prepared to contain\u00a0the most recent appearance of the H5N1 Bird Flu strain: \u201cNigeria will successfully control the bird flu outbreak. We have successfully controlled it in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: Ventures Africa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of Nigeria\u2019s most lucrative agricultural sectors, the Poultry industry, has been struck with the H5N1 virus more commonly known as the Bird Flu. Reports from the country\u2019s Ministry of Agriculture suggest that over 140,000 birds may have been exposed to the deadly disease. Over 21 farms spread across seven Nigerian states, including its commercial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-85170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}