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Ghana: Journalists have no power to announce bird flu outbreak

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  • Ghana: Journalists have no power to announce bird flu outbreak

    Journalists have no power to announce bird flu outbreak
    … Agric Ministry cautions

    From Emmanuel Akli, Takoradi | Posted: Monday, June 12, 2006

    The Western Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Mr. David Okine, has cautioned journalists not to rush into printing or broadcasting any suspected cases of bird flu in any part of the country.

    He said journalist with the information of suspected bird flu should first report to either the district or regional director of veterinary services for investigation.

    According to him, even if the district or regional veterinary officer’s investigations proved that the reported case was indeed bird flu, he had no power to go public with his finding.


    He would have to report it to his national secretariat in Accra, who would take samples to a designated laboratory in Accra for further investigation, and if it is confirmed the Director of Food and Agriculture would call a press conference to announce the occurrence of the avian influenza.

    Quick actions would then be taken to stop the disease from spreading into other parts of the country.

    Speaking at a workshop organized in Takoradi last Friday to educate the public on the disease, Mr. Okine said not even the minister of agriculture had the power to go public with the occurrence of the disease.

    He noted that such stringent measures had been put in place because they did not want the media to cause unnecessary panic about the bird flu in the country.

    The regional director of agriculture further told the gathering that it was the determination of the agric ministry to ensure that any information put in the public domain about the disease was nothing but the truth.

    Okine noted that the poultry industry in Ghana nearly collapsed because of the way the media over-blew the bird flu issue, resulting in public boycott of poultry products though the disease had not even been reported in any part of the country.

    He said the situation seemed to have changed due mainly to the massive public education campaign they embarked on.

    He therefore called on the media to obey the laid down procedure and refrain from rushing into print or broadcast of the disease without first informing the relevant authorities.

    He said a number of measures had been put in place to prevent the disease from spreading into the country.

    According to him, tyres of all vehicles and cars entering Ghana from the neighbouring countries are sprayed with special chemicals in addition to special checks on the vehicles.

    He revealed also that since migrating birds sometimes spread the disease, Nzema areas in the Western region had been put under special surveillance.

    He explained that the migrating birds usually settled on wetlands that are common in the Nzema districts, and that the people had been well-educated about the disease and its symptoms.

    Okine appealed to Ghanaians to always obtain movement permits from veterinary officers before moving animals from one geographical location in the country to the other.

    He noted that this law had been in our statute books for a long time, but was not enforced.

    The Western regional chairman of the Ghana Poultry Association, Mr. Tony Osei Mensah, on his part said the bird flu scare entered the country at the time poultry farmers had sold out their stocks because of the Christmas festivities.

    He noted that most of the farmers were not prepared to invest in new stock because they were unsure if they would recoup their investment due to the boycott of poultry products.

    He was therefore happy that the situation had now changed, with people now consuming poultry products.

    According to him even if the disease should enter the country, it was the farmers who usually have contact with the birds, and who would be at risk; not the general public.

    Mr. Mensah therefore appealed to journalists not to think they have gotten a scoop and rush to publicize any suspected case that might even prove wrong after laboratory investigations.

    The workshop was attended by journalists, players in the poultry industry and the general public.

    It was sponsored by the veterinary service directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ghana Health Service, United State Agency for International Development (USAID) and Ghana Sustainable Change Project (GSCP).
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