Cameroon authorities seized more than 10,000 chickens and arrested the vendors in the West African nation’s capital Yaoundé for selling the domestic fowls against the government ban on selling birds reports Today.
Following an outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza commonly known as bird flu (H5N1) in May this year, the government imposed a ban on the sale and consumption of chicken in the country.
The government ‘partially lifted’ the ban in some markets in August this year after authorities reported that the virus had been contained but the one of the biggest market in the capital Mog-Ada was not cleared to resume the trade.
“The Mvog-Ada market was not officially re-opened because of the bio-security measures.” said Ms Magdalen Nkwain of the Cameroon ministry of Livestock.
Cameroon is major exporter of chicken to neighbouring Central African Republic, Chad and Gabon with an annual production of 50 million according to the report. Gabon and Equatorial Guinea had also imposed ban on birds from Cameroon due to the resurgence of the virus.
