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Media Statement, 26th April 2006
GOAL's Avian Flu project kicks off in Niger this week, and aims
to stop lethal bird flu from becoming endemic in the world's poorest
country.
As one of the five African countries that has been hit by the
disease, poultry will need to be vaccinated or culled in increasingly
large areas of the country. In this west African country where 80%
of the population is reliant on small scale poultry as a source
of income, this will have disastrous consequences on malnutrition
and household income levels. With its operations based in Zinder,
GOAL's two pronged approach involves educating the population of
the affected region about the dangers of avian flu and how to protect
themselves, as well as assisting the local health board to determine
the extent of the problem. The GOAL Niger team will reach 29,000
people each month with this project.
"Famine is biting deep in isolated pockets all over the country.
In many cases, road networks are bad and telecommunications virtually
non-existent, making the process of mounting this project even more
difficult for the GOALies," explains GOAL's CEO John O'Shea.
Recent days saw the mass slaughter of almost 27,000 chickens and
other fowl infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus in Niger's southern
Magaria region. The government of Niger has already banned poultry
imports from neighbouring Nigeria and restricted moving poultry
between villages in Niger, as a safety precaution.
Last July, GOAL was one of the first agencies to distribute much-needed
emergency food supplies to the most vulnerable in Niger, where as
a result of drought and locust infestation, over 3.6 million of
the 11.5 million population faced critical food shortages.
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