The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation on Thursday expressed confidence in Nigeria’s ability to contain the spread of bird flu and pledged its technical and logistic supports.
FAO’s Country Representative in Nigeria, Louise Setshwaelo, gave the pledge in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
Setshwaelo said FAO was already supporting the Federal Government with professionals and pledged that more support would come to the country.
She said Nigeria had all it takes to control the outbreak of the avian influenza and recollected that the country had done it before in 2006.
She said: “Nigeria was able to eradicate bird flu the last time we had outbreak.
“That was about nine years ago.
“And we still have those structures in place that were used for the control then.
“All that is needed this time is to reactivate and revamp them.
“The capacities are still there.
“The structures are still there.
“It is good to see that both the Federal and State Governments are still maintaining the structure.
“FAO has already engaged a professional, Dr. Junaidu Maina, and the Minister of Agriculture has appointed him the leader of the team to control this outbreak.
“We will have meetings with our headquarters in Rome and our regional offices and our government colleagues here to decide on further support for the Nigerian Government.”
According to her, there will be need to provide protective clothing for people who are going in there to do disinfection.
Setshwaelo also stressed the need for logistical support, saying: “These are some of the things we can provide, not just human and technical supports.”
NAN reports that bird flu first broke out in 2006 and it lingered till 2008 before it was contained.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, has confirmed that the virus has spread to 11 states.