Following a report that an East Bank Berbice poultry farmer had lost hundreds of birds due to a mysterious illness, other farmers on EBB have reported that birds are dying of an illness with similar symptoms and the Ministry of Agriculture is providing no advice.
Several farmers who all rear bantams or what is referred to as ‘Creole’ fowls have reported that many birds have died/are dying of an unknown illness. The disease is also affecting Muscovy ducks, the farmers say.
Vanessa Sampson of De Kinderen depends on the eggs from her fowls to make a living. She has lost 70 per cent of them due to the unknown illness.
Affected poultry on an EBB farm
According to her on Sunday morning she discovered that fifteen of the birds became ill overnight. They all appeared to be lifeless. Since then about fifty more have died.
Another resident Indira Nauth who lost a similar amount, said the symptoms were detected about one month ago. She says most birds die a few days after becoming ill.
Meanwhile, Mohan Sookhoo explained that the disease has killed many of his birds: “Sometimes it kill about 10 to 20 for you one time. The sick can’t take recovery because sometimes we try treating it with drugs from the pharmacy and it don’t help. Most times it kills the roosters, big and small they just start slowing up in movements and eating and after a few days you gon just see the head going around and when it turn round, that’s it; they can’t recover again. Sometimes it takes the ducks; but not so much the ducks.”
Sookhoo says extension officers from the Ministry visited his farm on Tuesday but have provided no advice.
“When the vet came on Tuesday they experimented on the chickens and take samples from the inside and say they will take it back to the lab and then give us an answer, but no advice what to do till then,” Sookhoo noted.
Two weeks ago an EBB poultry farmer had reported that a mysterious disease had taken the lives of hundreds of his birds. He had told Guyana Times that when the disease hit his pen he had 1300 birds, now he is left with 70.
The farmer had reported that he was getting no assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture, however following the publishing of the death of the birds in Guyana Times he received several phone calls from senior officials of the Ministry.
The poultry farmers’ plight came to light after this publication reported of a possible poultry illness outbreak in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
The death of over 800 chickens prompted Regional Chairman David Armogan to request that the Agriculture Ministry investigate the mysterious illness.
Previously, reports had surfaced of a similar occurrence where a farmer at Linden in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) claimed that 300 birds had died from a mysterious disease at his farm.
The Berbice farmer had explained that his birds started dying on June 19 when he discovered that more than 200 had died overnight.
According to the farmer, the Ministry was contacted and extension officers were said to have visited the farm and took samples from some of the dead birds.
The farmer also stated that his brother went to the Agriculture Ministry to seek assistance for his plight but officials were reportedly unavailable.
The allegation of the Permanent Secretary (PS) saying that the Ministry did not have the equipment to do the requisite testing was strongly denied.
PS of Agriculture Ministry George Jervis had told Guyana Times that personnel from the Ministry will soon visit the farm and assess the situation.
“What we will do is visit the farm, go and take blood samples and see what we can do about it,” the PS had noted. (Andrew Carmichael)
