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How the spread of bird flu in West Africa is crippling Ghana's poultry industry

An outbreak of bird flu has been reported in Ghana, leading to the killing of 11,816 birds.

Since 2014, bird flu has been sweeping through West Africa.

Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Niger and Nigeria have all been hit by the H5N1 virus and it has decimated poultry populations, costing billions of dollars.

Out of the number, 5,431 birds have so far been killed by the flu at Boankra, near Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, while 5,935 have been killed in Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region of the country.

However, only 450 birds from a farm in Tema in the Greater Accra Region have been killed by the flu.

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Confirming the outbreak to the Daily Graphic in Accra on Monday, the Head of Public Health and Food Safety, Veterinary Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr Boi Kikimoto, said the ministry was aware of the outbreak and had already sent samples of the virus to the world reference laboratory of the World Animal Health Organisation in Pandova, Italy for further tests.

He explained that it was a normal procedure because that was the only place with the certified laboratory to test the virus and “secondly, they will help provide the palindromic sequence of the bird flu gene for us”.

n 2016, more than 25,000 birds were destroyed between January and July,as a result of the Avian Influenza (bird flu) on poultry farms.In all, 13 farms in the country were affected, out of which seven were recorded in the Greater Accra Region.In 2015, a total 76,326 birds were destroyed as a result of the outbreak of the epidemic nationwide.

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