Leadership (Abuja)
21 March 2008
Abuja — Federal government has paid N623 million as compensation to poultry farmers whose birds were killed between 2006 and 2008.
Director of livestock and pest control in the ministry of agriculture and water resources, Dr Junaid Maina, disclosed this yesterday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Maina said that N175 million of the amount came from the federal government while the rest was from the World Bank.
According to him, 2,733 farmers benefited from the payment.
He said that a total of 1,250,425 birds were slaughtered, of which 755,929 were infected by the "Highly Pathogenic A1 (HPA1) virus".
He said that the government had fully upgraded the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) Vom, to sustain the fight against bird flu.
Maina said the ministry was intensifying efforts on the three-year (2006-2009) Nigeria Avian Influenza Emergency Control Preparedness and Response Project (AIECPRP)
The project, he said, was aimed at preventing further spread of the HPA1virus to the unaffected parts of the country.
"AIECPRP will also promote poultry production, increase income of producers through surveillance and contain the Highly Pathogenic AI virus", he said.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Kabir Ibrahim, the President, Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has commended the efforts of Federal Government toward the prompt payment of the compensation.
Ibrahim said that some of the affected farmers were now restocking their farms with the aim of going back to business.
In his comments, FAO Representative, Helder Muteia said that in spite of the success recorded in controlling the disease in Nigeria, the H5N1 virus remained a global threat.(NAN)
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