SWINE FLU CLAIMS OVER 300 PIGS IN EBONYI STATE

Reporter : AMECHI ODO

Ebonyi State Government has quarantined six piggery farms over an outbreak of African Swine Fever.

Farmers claimed that the flu had so far, in some parts of the state, killed over three hundred and eleven pigs valued at ten million Naira.

Ebonyi State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Chief Ogodo Alinome, stated this while reacting to the outbreaks of the virus in some farms in Abakaliki.

He explained that the state government had so far conducted test in ten farmers of which six were found to have been infected.

The Chairman Piggery Farmers Association of Nigeria, Ebonyi State Chapter, Chief Mike Udenwe, explained that one of the farmers in Izzi Local Government Area lost two hundred and fifty pigs while two others lost about sixty-five pigs.

Chief Udenwe called on the State Government to, as a matter of urgency, ban the sale of pigs and consumption of pork meat to prevent further spread of the virus in the state.

He called on the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Organisations to come to the aid of the farmer, who have lost their investments.

Radio Nigeria gathers that the development is likely to affect the protein needs of the people of the state as pork meat has in recent time become the first sought after in the state.