It has been revealed that more than 1,500 chickens died mysteriously with another 3,000 being destroyed. This has prompted the Governor of the Western region to call for vigilance. The attack in the Western Region is coming a week after a similar attack in Yaounde, Centre region. A chicken farm owner in Bayangam discovered that over 1500 chickens in his farm died mysteriously. This led him to incinerate the remaining 3,000.

The owner who immediately alerted the authorities saw the Governor issuing string of measures to prevent the consequences of a possible avian flu spread. Some of the measures include: the provisional prohibition of any input or output movement in chickens shipments in the Western Region.

However, BaretaNews noted that in the afternoon of the 1st of June, ten trucks carrying chickens and eggs, were stopped at the entrance to the city of Bafoussam. Disgruntled breeders, owners of the content of blocked trucks besieged the governor’s office denouncing this measure. They say it is heavily affecting their businesses. The Governor Awa Fonka Augustine at the crisis meeting with farmers said his decision to stop the transport of chickens between his region and centre will remain until the results will be made on samples taken from dead chickens for analysis.

Awa Fonka Augustine has called on his people in the event of discovery of dead chicken to stay away and report it in a health facility or agents of MINEPIA. Dr. Idrissou Bapetel, regional delegate of the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries (MINEPIA) said “We ask farmers to report any case of suspicious death, officers are on the ground to ensure the quality of chickens “.

BaretaNews is worried that the Biya government is not doing enough to arrest this situation. If urgent measures are not taken, it will become a matter of all regions in the Cameroons. The government must be able to compensate accredited farmers who will have to lose tons of trucks of chicken because of this epidemic.

God is still saying something.