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Avian Flu Threatens West Africa Poultry Farmers

Avian Flu Threatens West Africa Poultry Farmers

By Brahima Ouedraogo and Jennifer Lazuta | From IRIN News

Naba Guigma, from Burkina Faso’s Boulkiemdé province, southwest of the capital Ouagadougou, watched helplessly as his chickens and guinea fowl began to die off one by one. His very livelihood – like that of the millions of other poultry farmers across West Africa – faces ruin.

“At first we thought it was (the) Newcastle (virus), a routine poultry disease, and so we rushed to sell some of them,” Guigma told IRIN.

In less than two weeks, all 120 of his birds were dead.

That was in April. Come June, some 1.7 million birds in five countries had succumbed to what had by then been diagnosed as the highly contagious and deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu.

The strain hasn’t been seen in the region since 2008, but was confirmed in Nigeria in January and has since spread to Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Ghana.

Guigma used to sell between 80 and 100 chickens a month, which together with egg sales earned him between $415 and $515.

“That was our main activity for revenue,” he told IRIN. “Now I have no more poultry. The henhouse is empty.”

The poultry sector has grown tremendously in West Africa over the last 10 years and is now a main source of income for many rural, small-scale farmers.

In Cote d’Ivoire, for example, the sector increased by more than 70 percent between 2006 and 2015, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The FAO and regional governments are still assessing the extent and impact of the outbreak but are clearly extremely concerned.

“I think we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg,” FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Juan Lubroth told IRIN. “I have sufficient information to be worried and insufficient information to be at ease.”

In Burkina Faso, farmers across nine of the country’s 13 regions have been affected by avian flu since April.

Around 215,000 birds have died. With each selling for about $10, this amounts to more than $2 million in direct losses, with poultry farmers and local merchants bearing the brunt of them.

Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Animal Resources estimates that direct and indirect losses due to the virus could amount to more than six million dollars this year.

Read more at IRIN News