Poultry farmers in Kaduna State are worried over a recent outbreak of Newcastle disease which has already killed hundreds of chickens in the state.
Poultry farmers in Kaduna State are worried over the outbreak of Newcastle disease in the state. The disease just like Bird Flu, affects chickens. Gambo Daniel, a small scale poultry farmer in the state, lost more than 400 of his birds to the disease on February 26. "I couldn't explain how it happened. They just started dying. I was helpless and confused," he said.
Daniel told Newswatch that the disease had a devastating impact on his business to a point that he almost gave up poultry farming. "It almost ruined my business. They started dying when they were five weeks old. I lost over N250, 000. It is a nightmare to me. I almost quit the business," he said.
Ishaku Ibrahim, a Kaduna based poultry farmer has a similar story to tell. He said the disease also hit his birds severely. But he was fortunate that it happened when the chickens were in their infancy. According to him, he unknowingly bought the birds that were infected with the Newcastle virus.
He told Newswatch that more than 1000 of his birds died in less than one week. He explained that though he isolated the infected ones and vaccinated them, yet the casualty was more than 90 percent. This, he said, negatively affected his business.
The Newcastle disease is a highly contagious viral disease that affects poultry. According to Ahmed Maiyaki, a veterinary doctor, the disease afflicts poultry due to their nature. Maiyaki said there was no treatment for the disease for now but that the use of vaccines and sanitary measures could check a likely outbreak. He explained that early detection of the disease among domestic fowls, turkeys or ducks can decrease the death rate. This, he said, could be achieved through strict quarantine of affected birds. He advised farmers to ensure that their birds were vaccinated at an early stage. According to him, vaccination would stamp out the possibility of the disease destroying the birds.
Maiyaki lamented that the virus had impacted negatively on the poultry industry because affected farmers had lost a lot of money. He said the worst hit were the small scale farmers. "The small farmers have little profit and hence they feel reluctant in administering vaccines to the birds. But this is unwise because they end up losing all their investment in the long run," he stressed.
The Newcastle disease was discovered in Newcastle on Tyne, England, in 1926. The disease has been known to have a number of strains that differ in the severity of their clinical signs, ranging from unapparent infection to rapidly fatal condition. Symptoms of the disease have been identified to include drop in egg production, profuse diarrhoea, sneezing, coughing, nervous signs such as twisted necks and difficulty in respiration. In humans, the virus causes only a temporary conjunctivitis.
Newswatch also learnt that the disease does not pose health risk to consumers of eggs and poultry products. But chickens that show signs of the disease should be destroyed as they are not good for human consumption, according to veterinary doctors.
Source: Newswatch
