Ho, July 11, GNA-Mr Gideon Akator, Chairman of Volta Regional Poultry Farmers Association on Tuesday said the bird flu scourge was a challenge for local poultry farmers to seize control of the local poultry market by being more competitive.

This, he said, would strengthen the local campaign to curtail the importation of foreign poultry products.

Mr Akator made these points at a media briefing on the Bird Flu in Ho.

He said the incidence of the Flu was an act of providence to promote the local poultry industry, which for many years suffered from unfair competition from foreign imports.

Mr Akator stated that it was heartening that the poultry industry in the country was re-emerging from the initial panic, which threatened its survival.

According to him, the patronage of poultry products at the moment had witnessed tremendous upsurge but the problem that needed to be overcome was the non-availability of day-old chicks whose parent stocks were destroyed in the frenzy of the news of the outbreak. Mr Akator observed that the right information disseminated by the task forces on the flu helped tremendously in reducing the initial panic and fear and re-assuring both producers and consumers of the state of the disease as far as the country was concerned. Mr Kofi Dzamesi, Volta Regional Minister in a speech read for him said, " it is gratifying to say that poultry consumption in Ghana has started picking up as a result of the right messages now being disseminated by the media".

He said the media crusade must now project the fact that local poultry was safe, and that the disease poses economic threat more than a health threat in the country.

Mr Dzamesi urged the media to also re-assure the public that no case of bird flu disease had been reported in Ghana neither has any case of bird flu been reported in humans in West Africa. He said the public also needed to know that chicken and eggs should be cooked well before eating, and that dead birds should not be touched but rather be reported to the nearest agricultural officer. Answering questions from the press, Dr Ben Aniwa, Volta Regional Veterinary Officer said because of the similarity between the bird flu and Newcastle disease it was important that any anomalies noted in any bird be reported to agricultural and veterinary officers immediately. He said tests conducted regarding bird flu would have to be authenticated by further tests in Rome.

Dr Aniwa explained that where a test confirms the bird flu, it was only the Minister of Food and Agriculture and the Director of Veterinary Services who could announce it to the public.

Regarding the danger from migratory and wild birds, he said what was important was that those birds should not be allowed to come into contact with poultry.