Dr. Hannah Louisa Bissiw, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, has allayed fears of an outbreak of bird flu in the country.

She has assured the public that there is no cause for agitation as government has instituted stringent measures to ensure that only wholesome foods get unto the market for consumption.

Dr. Bissiw, who spoke with Class FM’s parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, on Thursday December 10, amidst fears of the outbreak in Tema, explained that there are intermittent outbreaks of the flu in areas that have been hit by the disease in the past, but such occurrences should not be mistaken as an epidemic.

“Every country that gets bird flu, it doesn’t just move away. The break is for a year. After one year, from the thirteenth month to the next twenty-eight months, what you do is to go into passive surveillance. So, in the active surveillance period, you may get sporadic outbreaks especially in areas that had intense outbreaks, but that doesn’t affect the quality of poultry that we have on the market,” she clarified.

She said the movement of birds is, however, restricted in order for a proper assessment to be conducted to ensure only good poultry products get on the market for consumption.

It is barely two weeks to Christmas, a time when consumption of poultry increases. She indicated that the recent emergence of the disease will not affect poultry sales during the yuletide.

“I will say that it is 100% that we will consume chicken on our market. I am going to consume Ghanaian chicken. Go to the live market, the live market is where they slaughter for you,” the Deputy Minister stated.

She, however, cautioned that the Ministry cannot justify the quality of imported chicken that are being sold on the market.

“We cannot however confirm or certify the wholesomeness of what is imported into the country”.