By Frank Mugabi

THE Government has requested the World Bank to provide $17m (about sh30b) for the national action programme for avian and human influenza. Uganda was among the nations the World Health Organisation (WHO) cautioned to be alert after cases of bird flu were registered in Sudan.

The National Influenza Task Force developed a plan, which has lacked funding since February 2006.

Dr. Neolina Nantima, the national coordinator of the programme at the Ministry of Agriculture, said they were developing guidelines for marketing poultry, which would among other things criminalise the transportation of live birds.

“We shall encourage poultry markets to allocate slaughter areas because the current transportation methods like the wooden nests are a channel for the spread of the disease,” she said.

Nantima said the new slaughter system would also protect commercial birds from infection. “We have realised that commercial farmers are suffering because backyard farmers do not vaccinate their birds and indiscriminately depose off the feathers and offals of the chicken at home.”

Meanwhile, the World Bank in partnership with UN agencies has dispatched a team of consultants to carry out rapid appraisal of the veterinary services in across the country.

The panel will establish the level of preparedness incase of an outbreak of bird flu in the country.

They will make recommendations before the World Bank disburses the funds.