Ntungamo — Newcastle disease has hit two villages created by President Museveni as model parishes for the Prosperity for All Programme in Ntungamo.

The deadly chicken disease has so far claimed over 800 of the 1,786 birds. Symptoms of the disease include greenish diarrhoea, neck twisting and dropping wings. The local birds were from the presidential initiative for poverty alleviation.

Kikoni ward and Kikoni Parish in Ntungamo town council and Ntungamo Sub-county respectively were chosen by the President at the beginning of this year as a model parishes for farming with the President promising supplies to boost farmers' income.

The farmers were supplied with both chicken and pigs. Over 3000 other birds have died as a result of contact with the birds from the President's project. Farmers say the disease hasn't been seen in the area for the last 15 years. Mr Patrick Buringa, one of the beneficiaries, told Daily Monitor that the chickens supplied to farmers as the first stock carried the disease.

The idea was to stock the villages with local breed chicken to enhance local eggs production by Ms Juliet Ntweirenabo, the presidential advisor on poverty alleviation.

Farmers claim the chicken supplied were infected with Newcastle, something that Ms Ntweirenabo denies. She said the birds were purchased in Mukono but declined to name the farm where they were procured.