A 22 million shillings trust fund, approved in June by the national government, will help 20 poultry families in Cochabamba who have slaughtered all their chickens on the farm because of bird flu.
“We are communicating and launching this trust that will benefit 20 families who have lost almost everything. They slaughtered all the chickens they had on the farm,” Deputy Agriculture Minister Alvaro Mollinedo said on Thursday.
The authorities explained that the government has approved a fund of 22 million shillings to help poultry affected by bird flu in Cochabamba and continue to guarantee the production of eggs and chicken meat at fair prices for the Bolivian population.
“Now these families need the support of our central government because they have lost everything. It is now that this credit, this trust will help them enough so that they can return to production (food for the family basket and) in this way continue to guarantee,” he added.
He recalled that nationally, Cochabamba was the only department affected by avian influenza, and stressed that the Ministry of Rural Development and Lands managed to prevent the spread of the virus to other regions of the country.
Trust loans for eight years carry an interest rate of 4.9%. Those who wish can start their procedures to take advantage of them from June.
Iván Carrión, president of the Departmental Association of Poultry Farmers, said that 80% of those affected by bird flu in Cochabamba have resorted to bank loans, and a trust fund activated by the government will help offset the losses suffered by the sector.
“It will benefit the reactivation of the affected poultry farmers (…), thanks to this financial support, which is a fairly soft loan, they will resume work and basically pay off many of the debts they have acquired,” he said.
notes
On January 27 this year, an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza was confirmed in a farm for breeding laying birds (laying hens) in the municipality of Sacaba in the department of Cochabamba.
With this in mind, the Ministry of Rural Development and Lands (MDryT), together with the National Service for Agricultural Health and Food Safety (Senasag), declared an animal health emergency in Bolivia and activated a plan in line with international parameters to control and eradicate the disease.
The disease has caused about 590,000 bird deaths between death and sacrifice, fewer than in other countries in the region such as Ecuador, where 1.3 million bird deaths have been recorded.
The national government has invested 8.9 million baht in the fight against bird flu. The outbreak was brought under control at the end of March.
According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), avian influenza, also known as avian influenza, is an infectious disease that mainly affects birds and is caused by a virus from the orthomyxovirus family.
MS