Seventeen years after the first outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), otherwise known as Bird Flu in Nigeria, the federal government yesterday announced its position to stick to the “No Vaccination” policy against the diseases.
The policy was first adopted in 2006 following the outbreak of the diseases as one of the intervention policies on prevention and control of HPAI including Modified Stamping Out.
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The decision was arrived at after a stakeholders committee set up earlier in January 2023 considered the merits and demerits of vaccination and no vaccination to Nigeria economy and poultry industry and recommended a no vaccination strategy.
The minister of agriculture and rural development, Dr Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar who briefed journalists on the development yesterday in Abuja, said after due consideration of scientific and socio-economic evidences available to the committee on merits and demerits of vaccination or no vaccination, best global practices as well as the recommendations of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the committee recommends that the country should stick to the ‘No Vaccination’ policy for now. He explained that though the committee noted that the country might want to change her policy to vaccinate against HPAI in future, it recommends some activities to be carried out before considering the option of vaccination against HPAI as a policy for the country.
According to him the recommendations include, updating the identification and characterisation of circulating HPAI virus strains in Nigeria, updating prevalence and associated risk factors, conduct of risk assessment and analysis, ascertaining the efficacy of the vaccines and risk-mapping of the poultry production systems in the country.
He said, “The status-quo on vaccination policy against HPAI in Nigeria thus remains and as such, ‘No vaccination’ against Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza’ in Nigeria for now. However, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is committed to the control and possible eradication of avian influenza in Nigeria, on this note, we call on the development partners, individuals and organisations to support our course to fight this disease that is devasting our poultry industry and livelihood of our farmers.”