Bird Flu: Poultry Farmers Enjoy High Patronage In Makurdi

The Poultry Association
of Nigeria (PAN), Benue State  chapter, says in spite of the outbreak of bird flu in the country, its members are still enjoying high patronage.
Some poultry farmers made this known in separate interviews with newsmen in Makurdi.
According to them, the high level of patronage could be traced to the non-existence of the disease in the state.
A poultry farmer, Mr Samson Tyokula, said that Makurdi residents were not scared by the outbreak of the disease, adding that they were still consuming chicken as usual.
Tyokula said that the people have been enlightened to cook their chicken and eggs very well and maintain simple hygiene to prevent the disease.
Also speaking, Mrs Eunice Alom, a chicken seller, said that if the birds were cooked very well, the disease would be rendered ineffective.
Alom added that the same thing applied to eggs, even if they were contaminated by the disease.
Mr Aminu Musa and Malam Auwal Bako, both chicken sellers, said they had been buying chicken from Plateau but stopped doing so, since the bird flu outbreak was reported there.
According to them, at present, they only buy chicken from poultry farmers within Benue in order to avoid the spread of the disease.
Bako told reporters that the precaution became necessary to ensure that the state remained bird flu free.
He explained that the selling and buying of chicken and eggs had been his main source of livelihood for years.
‘’So I do not want to do anything that will put my business in jeopardy because if I am not in business today my family will suffer.
‘’I am the breadwinner of my family and I have a lot of dependents; my two wives and seven children as well as my aged parents,’’ he said.