Ten farmers at Kpone in Tema who had contact with birds infected with the deadly flu are under observation after they were screened by the public health department.

Thirty thousand birds were destroyed in two farms at Kpone.

Government has asked the public to be on high alert for cases of the disease after the World Organisation for Animal Health confirmed the presence of the disease in the country.

Last month, the Nogouchi Memorial Institute disclosed samples taken from poultry farms at Achimota and Tema tested positive for the disease.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Dr Hannah Bissiw then asked farmers to activate their bio security on their farms.

She cautioned farmers to be proactive when they see changes in their birds.

“Any form of bird you may have – even at home - if you see that they are not active; they’ve gone and grouped in a corner whilst you know that normally they would have been active, we advise that you quickly alert a technical person for them to see what the problem may be.”

Officials say measures have been put in place to detect cases of bird flu on farms across the country.

Head of Public Health at the Veterinary Services, Dr Bashiru Boi Kikimoto says emergency preparedness plans have already been activated and all Farmer Executive Associations as well as District and Regional Veterinary Offices have been made aware of the situation and are prepared to deal with it in case of an outbreak.

He tasked farmers not to delay if they find their birds acting in a suspicious manner.

Meanwhile, some consumers of poultry are calling on government for more education on bird flu.

“I don’t know anything about bird flu; I just go and buy my chicken and I don’t know if it has been infected with bird flu or not”, one consumer told Joy News.

Others also said they will be more cautious even though they might not be able to tell if what they are consuming is infected or not.

Last month, the Burkina Faso government confirmed the outbreak of the virus in the country.

So far, of the 18,264 bird affected, 16,009 died and 2,255 were slaughtered in that country.