This Monday, 20 February 2017, Déo Guide Rurema, Burundi Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, has announced a number of measures taken to contain bird flu in the country.
Déo Guide Rurema “people from provinces close to frontiers have to remain vigilant.”
Among the measures that have been taken by the ministry of agriculture and livestock is the suspension of the movement of chickens from the East African Community.” The importation of live poultry and their products such as eggs and meat from Uganda and other countries infected with this disease is temporarily suspended in our country.
Border control services are urged to be more vigilant when doing their job “, said Rurema.
The agriculture and livestock minister also said the environment ministry and services in charge of wild bird control are urged to work with the technical services of the office of the Director General of Livestock, to monitor the migration of wild and aquatic birds.
Rurema calls on people living in provinces close to frontiers such as Kirundo, Ngozi and Muyinga in the north and Cankuzo in the east, to remain vigilant as they are considered to be the most vulnerable.
Bernard Nzeyimana, the Head of”Twiyungunganye tuduze ikivi”, an association of chicken traders located in Bujumbura, said they do not import chickens from Uganda, but export them to the DRC. “Our chickens are healthy. We ask that the government let us export them and ban the entry of those from the countries already affected.”
Highly pathogenic avian influenza is a viral, contagious, often fatal disease that mainly infects domestic and wild birds but also other animals and human beings.
Its presence in Uganda has been officially confirmed in migratory birds along the edges of Lake Victoria, and, in domestic poultry in Masaka by the Ugandan authorities, on 14 January 2017.It was reported to the International Animal Health Organisation on 15 January 2017.
IWACU Open Data
