Poultry producers brace for bird flu infections
And while tourism officials met at the Princess, producers and processors gathered across town to discuss the country’s favourite bird: the chicken. News Five’s Karla Vernon has more.
Karla Vernon, Reporting
Whether they came from Spanish Lookout, Shipyard, or Little Belize these poultry producers want the same things: to process more chicken and turkey products, to persuade people to eat more eggs, and to avoid an avian influenza outbreak.
Minister of Agriculture Mike Espat says the ?bird flu? is a real threat to Belize?s most important animal protein industry.
Mike Espat, Minister of Agriculture
?People may not believe that this thing can happen that we can get an infection in Belize. And it is quite possible. As I said, when we use to talk about the invasion of the African bee everybody just waited and waited and waited and it did happen. When we spoke about lethal yellowing coming to Belize, it is finally in Belize destroying a lot of the trees. So we must be prepared and we must prepare a plan, which is what I am asking the producers and the people from BAHA to do.?
Dr. Joe Myers is a veterinarian with the Belize Agricultural Health Authority. He says BAHA is closely monitoring Belizean poultry farms as part of the country?s prevention strategy.
Dr. Joe Myers, Vet, Belize Agricultural Health Authority
?We are more into a preventative move than a if it comes. It is a matter of when it comes, not if it comes. So what we have done is advise farmers on stepping up on what we call bio-security, not allowing any and everyone into or out of their barns and avoiding having local chickens with what we call the commercial flocks and several other things.?
?We have elaborated a protocol, it?s quite comprehensive. Due to our size, as I?ve said before, and the location of the poultry farms, which is basically Mennonite community, Shipyard, Little Belize and stuff ? we would have to treat each of this area as one big farm. So there are certain steps that would be put into place, depending on which farm is affected, whether you would buffer or box off, quarantine, and then we would revert to either vaccination or some other method.?
Chairman of the Belize Poultry Association, Bernhard Bergen says the more than four hundred members of the B.P.A. are keen to protect the fifty-five million dollars invested in the Belizean chicken.
Bernhard Bergen, Chairman, Belize Poultry Association
?We have a surveillance programme going on with BAHA, which they are doing. Other times of the year, going out taking blood and doing tests. … We are specially taking measures on bio-security, leaving the birds inside, to try to keep the disease away.?
?I believe it would be pretty bad, well the farmer would lose a lot of money, but I hope it doesn?t come.?
Last year eight million chickens and almost two hundred thousand turkeys were consumed in Belize, representing a seventy-five percent total gross domestic product for livestock or fifteen percent of the G.D.P. for the entire agricultural sector. And tonight, poultry producers want consumers to eat up.
Orlando Habet, Manager Belize Poultry Association
?We would like to promote the consumption of eggs. One, because it assists the producers who are in the business, but also because it provides a highly nutritious product for our consumers. And especially for those people who are in poverty levels especially, because for about twenty-five cents for an egg it provides about sixty grams of protein and almost all the essential amino acids and important fats that we need to consume.?
?New research has shown that the cholesterol that eggs contain would only represent about fifteen percent of the cholesterol that will flow through the blood, because about eighty-five percent of the cholesterol in our blood comes from production within our own bodies through the liver.?
Reporting for News Five, I am Karla Vernon
According to the Poultry Association, chicken constitutes eighty percent of the meat consumed in the country.
