Accra, May 3, GNA - Afariwaa Farms, major supplier of day-old chicks in West Africa, is not affected by the outbreak of avian influenza in the Tema Municipality since their birds are produced and kept on a farm on the Nsawam - Suhum Road in the Eastern Region.

A statement Nana Owusu-Afari, Chairman and Chief Executive of Afariwaa Farms, signed on Thursday said: ""We wish to assure all our customers that we have not kept any bird on our site at Tema since the last four years."

The statement explained that the Tema Development Corporation, the planners of Tema Municipality, had re-zoned their farmlands into Community 21 and Community 22 for schools and residential purposes so they had had to move their birds away.

"Our poultry breeding is now at a farm on the Nsawam-Suhum road. Our Day old chicks come from hatching eggs produced by the breeder at this farm;" the statement said.

"We wish to emphasise once again that the day-old-chicks from Afariwaa are very healthy and free from any avian flu", the statement said.

The Farms said it had found it necessary to issue the statement because since the announcement of the detection of bird flu in the Tema Municipality they have been receiving numerous phone calls from customers in Ghana, Sierra-Leone and Benin to find out whether it was on their farm.

The statement said when the avian flu scare erupted last year the Management took the necessary steps to educate the farmhands on how to ensure the safety of their birds.

It, therefore, urged all in the poultry industry to go by the directives given by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Ernest Debrah in order to ward off or contain any possible outbreak of the disease anywhere in the country.