Delta State has an additional disease to battle apart from COVID-19.
The Okowa government says it will quarantine the Owa-Alero Youth Agriculture and Entrepreneurship Programme (YAGEP) Farm Cluster where an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) has been reported.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Julius Egbedi, in company of the State Chief Job Creation Officer, Prof. Eric Eboh, made this known on Thursday during an inspection of the affected farm in Ika North East Local Government Area of Delta.
The commissioner noted that a permanent method to eliminate the dreaded African Swine Fever was to quarantine the farm for at least three months and destroy the pigs in the farm.
Egbedi decried the level of indiscipline exhibited by farmers in that cluster and charged them to always pay close attention to and comply with prescribed guidelines for animal husbandry.
According to him, farmers have to adhere to laid down biosecurity and other measures in the rearing of livestock to prevent the eruption of avoidable diseases.
He said: “To forestall outbreak of an epidemic, the farm would be shut down and quarantined for a minimum of three months and every pig in the farm would be destroyed.”
Egbedi, who also sympathised with the farmers over their losses, assured them of state government assistance to mitigate the losses incurred after an investigation to ascertain the extent of the loss.
Also, the State Chairman, Pig Farmers Association, Mr Jerry Ossai, who described the incident as unfortunate and sad, appealed to them to adhere to the commissioner’s advice.
Ossai said that farmers should also take advantage of services offered by Insurance Companies and get their farms insured so that they would not lose out totally in events of such nature.
On his part, the state Director for Veterinary Services, Dr Charles Diai, charged the farmers to be disciplined in the rearing of their animals to ensure maximum yield and minimum losses.
Diai also assured that since the ASF was not transmittable to humans there was no need to panic.
