Abuja — The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, has declared that the federal government's policy on 'No Vaccination' for control of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) otherwise known as 'Bird Flu' in the country has not changed.
Speaking at a media briefing on the persistent outbreaks of HPAI and the control measures in Nigeria, the minister insisted there would be no vaccination of poultry for now.
Rather, he said the ministry remained committed to the control and possible eradication of avian influenza in the country - and called on the development partners, individuals, and organisations to support the course to fight the disease, which has devasted the poultry industry and livelihood of farmers.
The minister said the current outbreak had been depleting the country's poultry population with severe negative economic consequences on the livelihood of poultry farmers.
He pointed out that following the resurgence of HPAI in 2014, poultry farmers and other stakeholders, who desperately wished to stop the cycle of the disease called for a reconsideration of the no-vaccination policy by the government.
He said the calls have resurfaced again for the same reasons adding that the ministry in its avowed commitment to proper stakeholders' consultation, set up a ministerial committee consisting of experts from the research institutions, academia, public and private sectors, and international partners to look into what the sub-sector was doing right in the past that prevented or contained the disease, what has gone wrong and importantly, what should now be done.
"Though the committee noted that the country might want to change her policy to vaccinate against HPAI in the future, it recommends some activities to be carried out before considering the option of vaccination against HPAI as a policy for the country," the minister further noted.
The committee had also called for the conduct of risk assessment and analysis; ascertaining the efficacy of the vaccines and risk-mapping of the poultry production systems in the country.
He said since 2006 when the country recorded her first outbreak of HPAI in a farm in Kaduna State, the federal government with the support of the World Bank and other development partners intervened in different ways to ensure prompt and effective prevention and control of the disease.
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The minister said, "One such intervention was the formulation of a policy on prevention and control of HPAI bordering on Modified Stamping Out and No Vaccination strategy. This approach was to stop the circulation of the HPAI virus in our environment and mitigate losses to poultry farmers."
