Dr Christopher Tagoe, the Western Regional Veterinary Officer, has called on poultry farmers in the region to avoid accepting new birds into their farms due to the emergence of the bird flu disease in the country.

He said since the disease was reported in Accra in June this year, all movements of poultry have been halted to prevent the spread of the disease to other parts of the country.

He told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on Wednesday that, the police has been directed to inspect permits of any mass movements of poultry birds across the country.

Dr Tagoe said although the disease has not affected any poultry in the region there was the need to be extra cautious, hence the restrictions on the movements of poultry.

“We have been sensitizing the general public on the symptoms and effects of bird flu and given out pamphlets to farmers to enable them to exercise caution when handling poultry”, he said.

He urged poultry farmers to quarantine any bird that may behave abnormally, to ascertain the sort of disease it may be suffering from, instead of concluding that it is bird flu.