What’s the Way Forward for Poultry Industry in North?

So what will happen with these farms? So far, over twenty-eight thousand birds have been killed. Manager of the Belize Poultry Association, Armando Cowo says that a proposal has been issued to the Ministry of Agriculture and BAHA on a way forward.

Miguel Depaz

Dr. Miguel Depaz, Director of Animal Health Department, BAHA

“We have depopulated birds in three farms. One consisted of twenty-four thousand, one consisted of four thousand and the layer farm consisted of fifteen hundred – one thousand five hundred.”

Armando Cowo

Armando Cowo, Manager, Belize Poultry Association

“Under the proposal it calls for the hatchery in Blue Creek being totally shut down and disinfected for one week. If we go that route that will have repercussion down the cycle of production for poultry products for Belize. We will be looking at a downtime further in November because a shutdown in one week will reverberate way into November. Even though it is a week, it is a week with no hatchlings being put out by the hatchery and therefore farmers in the production cycle will be set back. And we also need to understand that the barns that should have been receiving those chicks will be set back. One of the other decisions that we made was to have all the barns cleaned out and disinfected. We are hoping that by the first of December this will be all over; all our barns would have been disinfected and decontaminated, together with the hatchery and all the other equipment involved, all the trucks that move around; all the equipment that move the feed, everything. We are hoping that there will be a general clean up in that area and therefore we are asking the public to bear with us.”