The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Ministry of Agriculture is seeking to lessen the risk of bird flu by utilising tetra brown chickens for the Golden Yolk programme, which will be sold to wholesalers.

Justin Taylor, during a tour of D&T farm, yesterday, said the red chicken which produces around 250 brown eggs a year, is “hearty” and fears well against diseases, making a suitable choice given the bird flu outbreak occurring in the US.

“It is known to be a very prolific breed of chickens,” Mr Taylor said. “They’re very docile and hardy. When I say hearty, they’re resistant to diseases. Like right now we have the great endemic in the United States with the bird flu.

“From a scientific point of view, the bird flu is mainly passed through the migratory pathway of birds. So it started off in the west coast, California. So when it started off the west coast, actually what happened was birds started from the west and they continue east. And then when they continue east, farms were affected with 1 million, 2 million chickens. So a farm at 1 million, 2 million is so hard in terms of biosecurity. What I’m saying is biosecurity is, let’s say you could actually identify sick birds here, but if you have a 2m flock, it’s impossible. So we have small infection pressure here. And again part of this layer programme is, we’re going to actually establish between Freeport, Grand Bahama in the north, we’re going to do the Central Bahamas and Grand Cay, Farmers Cay, we’re going to do Cat Island, Eleuthera. And so we’re going to be resilient. So let’s say if we have impact like our Dorian destroyed Abaco, we have other islands we could be resilient on so you can mitigate those risks.”

He added that the shelf life will last longer and eggs will be fresher than imported eggs.

“Much different. Because why? No traceability? The states have a last in, last out. So where they have some farms of 10 million chickens, they’re not going to sell you today’s egg with us today. So they’re going to get rid of those eggs like two months or whatever. Some of the companies, they may not have the date when produced. The older the egg is, the less nutrients. You lose nutrients. So when you get these eggs today, you get all the vitamin B12s, the vitamin B complex, some called thymine lutein and the flaxseed which is rich in omega 3. These are actually good for cardiovascular diseases. So you getting as fresh as possible.”

Revealing 10,000 birds were brought in for the egg production industry, Minister of Agriculture Jomo Campbell said the selected vendors for the programme will sell their eggs to BAMSI or BAIC and they will be resold to the public at a cheaper rate. The programme is to aid in the reduction of the food import bill by 25 percent. Explaining the advantage of being an archipelago building an egg production industry, he added that if one island experiences a problem with its chicken, the other islands can make up for it.

“So now we have several different locations, islands and cays that are going to be totally self-sufficient with eggs,” Mr Campbell said. “So unlike some of our brothers and sister countries that are one landmass, when they’re impacted by a disease like bird flu, it wipes out everything. Fortunately for us in The Bahamas, if we have an outbreak in Andros, we’re able to alleviate that with our other islands that are separated by bodies of water. So we want to show people not just the natural sun, sand and sea beauty of it, but the fact that we have an advantage in an industry to ensure that what we provide to the general public is safe and sound and will be consistent. And that’s the key for us.”

During the tour, the location of the feedmill was revealed. Mr Campbell said he does not want the Golden Yolk programme to be seen as a “golden joke,” adding that it is “real”.

He explained the benefits of the Bahamas being an archipelago versus a country that is one landmass, and how that helps to boost and bolster the egg production industry.

“The birds are real, the infrastructure is real, the land is real, the people are real and the benefits, the most important part for the Bahamian people, is as real as [it] could ever be.”