Kenya blocks chicken meat from Uganda on flu reports

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Public health and veterinary officers at Busia and Malaba border posts had been placed on high alert to ensure no imports of poultry products are allowed in until the situation in Entebbe has normalised.

Kenya has banned importation of live birds and chicken products from Uganda following a confirmed outbreak of Bird Flu in the neighbouring country on Sunday evening.

Chief Veterinary Officer Juma Ngeiywa said all public health and veterinary officers at Busia and Malaba border posts had been placed on high alert to ensure no imports of poultry products are allowed in until the situation in Entebbe has normalised.

“Permits issued to chicks, eggs, poultry meat and breeding chicken importers will have to be reviewed to safeguard spread of Bird Flu to Kenya,” Dr Ngeiya said.

The alert follows a Uganda government announcement that the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), which infects both animals and humans, had been detected following tests on carcasses of white winged-black tern birds that died on the shores of Lake Victoria near Entebbe at Lutembe beach on January 2.

A second incident was confirmed last Sunday at Bukakata area within Masaka district, 75 kilometres from Kampala City, when carcasses of five domestic ducks and a hen tested positive to HPAI prompting re-activation of the National Task Force to co-ordinate the fight against Avian Flu.

Acting General Health Services Director in Uganda Anthony Mbonye, however, allayed fears of people contracting the Avian Flu, saying the probability of bird-to-human infection was low.

“Any infected person will show influenza-like symptoms-coughs, muscle-aches, headaches and diarrhoea. It can be mild, but also very lethal as it attacks the lungs and the kidneys,” he said.

Uganda’s Agriculture, Industry and Fisheries minister Christopher Kibazanga confirmed the outbreak, saying measures had been taken to avert any further spread of the disease.

The Avian Flu could have been brought to Uganda by white winged black terns (migratory birds) that fly in from Europe during winter to breeding grounds on the shores of Lake Victoria.

Kenyan poultry traders have been sourcing eggs, hatched day-old chicks and poultry meat from Uganda earning handsome profits as it is far much cheaper compared to Kenyan poultry products.

A grade chicken egg imported from Uganda costs Sh7 and is sold in Kenya for Sh15, a situation that has elicited protests among Kenyan poultry farmers who have in the past demanded that such imports be subjected to a 16 per cent Value Added Tax to safeguard the country’s poultry market from unnecessary competition.

Kenya Poultry Farmers Association chairperson Muthoni Kariuki welcomed the ban, saying subsidies provided to Ugandan Poultry Farmers had given them undue advantage to make handsome profits in Kenya.

“Poultry farmers face a heavy burden buying processed animal feeds that attract punitive taxes and which we have to pass on to poultry product dealers who in turn impose the same on their sales to recoup input costs and make a profit,” she said.

Nakuru’s Wakulima Market egg seller Benard Ngugi said that at least 6,000 crates of Ugandan eggs were offloaded at the market every week helping meet an egg shortage, which if not checked could cause a steep price hike.

READ: Cheap imports of Ugandan eggs and milk hurt farmers

In Kenya, stiff competition for maize as a raw material for maize flour and as an important ingredient in animal feeds has seen demand rise making Kenya a maize deficient country unlike Uganda where maize and Omena (dagaa) are cheaply available because the staple food is bananas.

The Ugandan government downplayed the outbreak, but instructed poultry keepers to confine their chicken to avoid any contact with wild birds that could lead to infections.

The statement added that any bird death should be promptly reported for analysis.

Prof Mbonye said no one should touch a dead bird with bare hands, but should report promptly to the authorities to facilitate further investigations.

The ban could also affect hawking of roasted poultry meat along the Kampala-Masaka highway, adversely affecting the livelihoods of about 300 traders.

Kenya enjoys a free trade area status with Uganda as both are key members of the East African Community.

Uganda has been enjoying a boom in commercial poultry production with several hatcheries and egg production companies established in various parts of the country.

Currently there are no statistics showing the poultry trade volumes between Kenya and Uganda.