A Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) between the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) was signed this week toward controlling and eliminating the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).

This particular technical assistance aims at strengthening the country’s capacity to control and prevent further spread of the disease, contain it, and better manage the risk factors.

The Deputy Regional Representative for Africa and FAO Country Representative, Dr. Abebe Haile Gabriel, signed for his organisation and said the ceremony is a demonstration of continued commitment and resolve to collaborate and coordinate efforts to stamp out spreading of the HPAI, and its subsequent elimination from Ghana.

Dr. Gabriel noted that Ghana is currently experiencing HPAI outbreaks, which were formally reported in May 2015 and confirmed in June of the same year, after reports of similar outbreaks in other West African countries -- namely Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger and Nigeria.

As at December 12, 2015, a cumulative number of 36 outbreaks had been recorded in five regions of Ghana: the Greater Accra, Volta, Ashanti, Western and Central Regions.

The FAO deployed a team from the FAO Crisis Management Centre Animal Health to Ghana in June 2015 to evaluate the extent of outbreaks, and work with government counterparts and other partners with a view of putting in place practical measures to bring the HPAI outbreaks under control.

Dr. Gabriel said the FAO has been collaborating with government in support of efforts directed at outbreak investigations, case-tracing surveillance, and collection of samples. Some of the measures employed to control the outbreak, he noted, included destruction of infected birds, decontamination, and provision of basic training in disease recognition.

“However, the spread of the disease required an upsurge in counter-epizootic measures to control it. In this light, government requested technical assistance from FAO to control this disease that has impacts on both public health and livelihoods. This Technical Cooperation Project is therefore developed in response to the request to support efforts of government toward controlling the HPAI disease.”

The technical support will focus on capacity strengthening interventions: in particular on training of field officers in current and state of the art techniques for HPAI disease outbreak surveillance; improving the veterinary services laboratory; providing HPAI control materials and equipment; training poultry producers, traders, and other stakeholders on disease recognition, biosecurity and best practices; and facilitating cross-border consultations among others.

The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in Charge of Livestock, Dr. Louisa Hannah Bissaw, signed on behalf of the government of Ghana and thanked the FAO for continued cooperation; noting that emergency assistance to mitigate the avian flu outbreak amounted to US$413,000. She also announced that compensation of GHC11million.