World Bank To Establish Bird Market In Katsina State

The World Bank is to establish two markets for live birds in Katsina State as part of measures to control outbreak of Avian Influenza.

The state’s Coordinator of the Avian Influenza Control Project, Dr Isa Abba, made this known in an interview with newsmen  in Katsina recently.

He said the two projects which would cost about N15 million, would be sited in Katsina and Charanchi local government areas.

“We have already written a memo requesting the state government to allocate land for the project, in Katsina, while the Charanchi local government council has already given us land,” he said.

According to him, the project will be executed under Public Private Partnership (PPP), with the World Bank contributing 85 per cent, and the poultry farmers contributing the remaining 15 per cent of the project cost.

“Under the PPP arrangement, the markets will solely be owned by poultry farmers and they will be responsible for their management and maintenance,” he said.

Abba explained that the project would endeavour to prevent diseases such as new castle, gumboro, fowl fox and many others threatening birds.

The coordinator said that the project had also embarked on a massive enlightenment campaign on bio-security measures in all the 34 local government areas.