African news : breaking news, features, analysis

The Accra Veterinary Laboratory has held training on Avian Influenza, commonly known as bird flu, for laboratory workers in the West African sub-region.
With support from the United States Development for Agriculture (USDA), the five-day training brought together 25 participants from Nigeria, The Gambia, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Niger.

The training was to equip participants with additional knowledge and expertise to effectively maintain surveillance, manage any poultry disease outbreak and trace contacts to control any disease.
Participants were also taken through the rudiments of other poultry diseases such as new castle and Gomborro.
They were also enlightened on the importance of health workers protecting themselves from contracting any infection while handling infected poultry and its products.

All 25 participants were presented with certificates of participation.
Meanwhile, the USDA handed over the post-mortem kits that were used for the practical lessons to each participant.
They included boots, nose caps, gloves, laboratory coats and other post mortem instruments.

Enhance collaboration

Addressing participants in the closing ceremony, the Deputy Director of Veterinary Services in charge of Laboratory at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Dr Augustus Ayitey, said the training programme was to put participants from the sub-region in a better position to diagnose the disease.
He said in any disease situation, when clinical symptoms were noticed, there was the need for laboratory confirmation.
With Avian Influenza, he said, the clinical signs were familiar to those of the Newcastle disease, hence the need for laboratory confirmation.
Dr Ayitey remarked that the training would enhance collaboration among the sub-region to harmonise procedures that would be used to address the outbreak.

Outbreak

The Head of the Accra Veterinary Laboratory, Dr Joseph Adongo Awuni, said the training was timely, since the sub-region, except The Gambia, was facing outbreak of Avian Influenza.
He advised participants to impart the knowledge acquired at the training to their colleagues.

A participant from The Gambia, Mrs Tida Ceesay Bojang, said although The Gambia had not recorded any case of Avian Influenza yet, other diseases were endemic in that country.
She added that the training had equipped her to be able to sample the various poultry diseases, adding that she would impart the knowledge to her colleagues.