Mass backyard poultry vaccination to fight castle disease risk

The ministries of Agriculture and Health in collaboration with the Freetown City Council western area rural district council and the Sierra Leone Animal Welfare Society have concluded a two-day vaccination exercise for backyard poultry against the new castle disease.

The vaccination exercise which targeted over 14,000 backyard poultry was undertaken for people raring the species between Bombay Street in the east-end of Freetown to communities in the western area rural district council on the 3rd and 4th July 2010. The exercise was made possible with funds from the Support Programme to Integrated National Action Plans on Avian and Human Influenza (SPINAP- AHI) which is provided by the European Commission through the Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources.

The new castle disease is a seasonal flu that often breaks out amongst backyard poultry and kills them in large numbers.

In his remarks on the exercise, director of the department of Livestock and Veterinary Services, S.M. Kamara, noted that people often lose their chickens in large numbers during this seasonal flu period causing them unwarranted distress.

He said the vaccination process was the first in the western area and that there is plan to replicate the exercise in other areas in the future. The process, he said, is not only for the western area but also the provinces.

Kamara also noted that in the spirit of effectiveness and wider participation, the programme is not only implemented by the ministry of Agriculture alone, but with ministry of Health and Sanitation, the Freetown City Council and the Sierra Leone Animal Welfare Society.

He emphasized that the ministry is determined and that the Livestock Division is more than ever before poised to promote animal welfare through timely interventions and workable strategies.