The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries has dismissed social media reports that there was a strange disease affecting poultry in Masaka district.
On Thursday last week, a widely shared audio recording made the rounds on social media claiming a discovered dump of carcasses of dead birds in Masaka District. The recording claimed that there was a strange disease affecting poultry birds in Masaka, and warned the public from consuming chicken.
In response, the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Health department and The College of Veterinary Medicine dispatched scientists to pick up samples from the district.
The Ministry has now announced that tests were conducted on the samples have turned negative for poultry-related diseases.
“Preliminary tests from samples picked from Masaka that had earlier been sent through the hub system have turned negative for New Castle Disease, Avian Influenza, and Infectious Bursal Disease,” the Ministry announced in a statement on Tuesday.
It added that a postmortem was conducted on the dead birds that were traced to one farm had “glaring evidence” of the injection of oxytetracycline (suspected high dosage) into the dead birds to treat pneumonia caused by congestion of the birds in their houses.
The farmer, the Ministry said, attributed this to a “veterinary” doctor and later admitted that when the birds died, they proceeded to dispose of the birds in the field in which members of the public later found them.
“The general public is hereby reassured that there is no strange disease affecting the poultry industry. Poultry farmers are advised to consult qualified veterinary doctors when handling their birds’ health and to take care when using antibiotics. The public is also further advised to disregard the audio message that went viral last weekend as It is not representative of the poultry industry, and therefore misleading.”