Businessman Aga Sekalala Jr, chairman of the Poultry Association of Uganda, has said, 23 association members have so far lost about Shs 2bn this month after Kenya and Rwanda announced a ban on Ugandan poultry products due to a bird flu outbreak.

“We were contracted to export poultry products worth Shs 2bn to Rwanda and Kenya this month but the contracts have been cancelled. Our poultry product exports have been ranging between Shs 2bn to 5bn per month in Rwanda and Kenya depending on the season,” he said in a Friday interview.

Sekalala said the association members, with 23 poultry farms, export chicks, ready-to-eat chicken and eggs. On January 16, the ministry of agriculture announced it had detected avian flu or bird flu, among migratory birds, which had spread to a few domestic birds.

That announcement prompted Kenya and Rwanda to boycott Uganda’s poultry exports. Uganda has about 40 million chickens, according to the current ministry of agriculture statistics.

Sekalala, who is also the executive director of Ugachick Poultry Breeders Limited, said before the bird flu outbreak, Tanzania was the first to ban Ugandan poultry to protect her own poultry producers.

He said so far there are no chicken in their farms with Bird Flu.

“We don’t allow people or any bird to come near our poultry farms. We use all standard measures to protect our farms by making sure all workers entering the farm are very clean and their shoes are sprayed to disinfect the area,” he said.

According to Richard Kamoga, a poultry farmer in Kampala, his chickens are free of the avian influenza or bird flu.

“We don’t allow any foreign bird to come near our poultry farm and all workers wear overalls before they enter the farm to avoid spreading the disease,” he said.

Kamoga said they also use dogs on their farms to chase foreign, wild animals away from the farm. He said the ban on Ugandan poultry in the East African Community is not biting much since most of the chickens are sold locally and very few are exported.

Rahim Mangi, the managing director, Yo Kuku!, said the ban was rushed since there is no proof that the Ugandan poultry industry has been hit by bird flu.

The current bird flu out- break in Uganda was the first confirmed presence in East Africa and it has so far been diagnosed among white winged black tern birds in Lutembe beach and domestic ducks in Masaka district.

The Uganda Virus Research Institute confirmed the presence of the H5NI strain of the bird flu in all the seven samples collected and the government chemist also collected samples of water in the affected areas and results are expected soon.

HOW DEADLY IS BIRD FLU?

According to Beth Njeri, the digital content officer of the World Animal Protection in Kenya, the ban has led to a hike in prices of poultry products in Kenya and Rwanda.

“There is already an increase in egg and chicken prices in Kenya while in Uganda there is loss of surplus poultry products,” she said.

The symptoms of bird flu in poultry include; ruffled feathers, depression, droopiness, loss of appetite, fever and a drop in egg production. Others are blood-tinged discharge from nostrils, diarrhea, weakness and swelling of the head.

In humans the symptoms include; conjunctivitis, influenza, fever, cough, difficulty in breathing, sore throat pneumonia and muscle aches. Other signs are nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, acute respiratory distress and sometimes neurologic changes or altered mental status.

According to the ministry of Health spokesperson Vivian Nakaliika, about 20 people in different parts of the country have shown bird flu symptoms but are not yet confirmed to have the virus.

She requested farmers to consult veterinary doctors when they see bird flu symptoms in birds. Dr Anthony Mbonye, the director general of Health Services, advised people to avoid handling dead birds or slaughtering sick or wild ones.

“All poultry birds for consumption should be cooked well since the virus is sensitive to heat,” he said.

zurah@observer.ug