By: Thomas Nsowah-Adjei
The Ashanti Regional Directorate of the Veterinary Service, has since the outbreak of the bird flu in July, 2021, destroyed 1,424 crates (42,720) of eggs belonging to 19 poultry farmers.
Also, 126,000 birds and several bags of poultry feed were also destroyed.
The Ashanti Regional Director of the Veterinary Service, Dr. Marlon Mensah told GBC News in Kumasi, that the disease has been recorded in 10 out of 43 districts.
Opanin Kwame Adusei of Adusei farms lost more than 50,000 birds. Apart from farmers losing their investments, all their farm hands have been laid off.
Some farmers in Ashanti however do not believe in the existence of the bird flu or fear that they will not be compensated in the event of losing the birds.
Dr. Mensah assured the farmers of the government’s readiness to compensate them, as there is a law backing such a decision.
He said the disease is deadly and can therefore be easily transmitted to human beings if the affected birds are not destroyed early.
A 73-year-old Poultry farmer, Opanin Kwame Adusei, who has lost a thousand birds from his two farms, appealed to the government to urgently compensate them.
He said the banks have threatened to sue them to retrieve the loans.