The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has said it has the capacity to contain the outbreak of Avian Flu also known as H5N1 in Ghana although the virus could be transferred from birds to human beings.<\/p>\n
The Deputy Agric Minister, Dr. Hannah Bissiw said some experts are in the country to assess the situation and by Friday, recommendations will made to protect lives.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”Rv9xT1FisiIL0xtKV4VYWYFj9HeMRbuu”]\u201cWe are capable of containing it. Apart from that, there are experts who have been around for some days now \u2013 they go to the filed with the vets, we are checking all the loopholes that we may have on our farms to determine what might have gone wrong. They will be briefing us on Friday so that we will know what they have seen and what their recommendations are and then we will move forward,\u201d she disclosed on Eyewitness News.<\/strong><\/p>\n Tests results of samples of reported Avian Flu cases taken to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Laboratory in Padova, Italy proved positive.<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The samples were taken from some poultry farms in Achimota and Tema in May 2015 after reports mereged that there was a possible outbreak of the disease in Ghana.<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The samples were then taken to Accra Veterinary Laboratory and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and the tests proved positive.<\/p>\n The Ministry however took the samples to Italy for further tests and the results again proved positive.<\/p>\n Dr. Bissiw however said there is no cause for alarm although humans may be at risk.<\/p>\n She explained that \u201cH5NI means it can move from birds to human. For the birds, it\u2019s not only the poultry but any animal with feathers \u2013 it can get the H5NI.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you get into contact with any affected bird, the possibility of you getting it is high\u2026it doesn\u2019t also mean that it is so dangerous that we have to stop eating birds.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor you to get H5NI, you should have handled the bird, fed on it in a very wrong manner\u2026when it does happen in human, it\u2019s fatal and because of that we are raising the awareness,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n According to her, government will take the necessary steps to protect the country\u2019s borders as well as quarantine the farms which have recorded cases of the H5NI because \u201cwe should not allow birds in and out of those areas so that it can be contained and then they can better fight it and eliminate it.\u201d<\/p>\n Situation is bad<\/strong><\/p>\n The Deputy Minister was however unable to indicate how far the disease has spread since no reports have come in from outside Accra.<\/p>\n She pointed out that the \u201csituation is bad because it\u2019s bird flu but the scale of the outbreak is not that bad because it has appeared in only four farms and already, we have attacked it with all aggressiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Bissiw remarked that so far, no human being has been infected because \u201ceven in the sub-region, we\u2019ve not had any case of human getting the flu from the birds.\u201d<\/p>\n She said her Ministry has not been able to determine how the virus got into the country \u201cbut the most important thing right now is that it is here.\u201d<\/p>\n The workers of the affected farms are to be screened to make sure they are free of the virus.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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