MANGA: confessions of a poultry breeder
By Eva Dadrian The stairs leading to the roof where the hen house is are clean. No feathers and no chicken droppings here. A gallabeya (long rural dress) and a scarf are hanging on the door while tucked in a corner stand a pair of sleepers that have seen better days “I use these only when I go inside the hen-house and when I finish feeding the chickens and cleaning the yard, I take them off and leave them here” In the small village of Kofour El Nil in the governorate of Fayyum, 41 year old Manga is a household name. Outspoken but reverential, tough but generous, she has all the qualities of a leader. Today, all the women from the village have gathered on the terrace of Manga’s modest dwelling, to listen to the Raeda Refiya who is summing up the week’s demonstrations. Using a self explanatory flip chart the Raeda shows the pictures depicting the step by step safe process of keeping and looking after household poultry. Launched in August 2007, the education and awareness campaign against avian flu is one of the most important operations organised by the MOHP in collaboration with UNICEF in the battle against avian flu in Egypt. Within the framework of the national strategic plan of the Egyptian government, veterinarian surveillance was strengthened and house-to-house vaccination campaigns implemented. But the most important component of the strategy was the deployment of community outreach workers who set of to educate the public about the best home breeding practices. Manga has been married for 23 years and has four children. Her husband works on the national railway and his meagre salary is just enough to raise and feed the family. In rural Egypt there is a strong belief that a woman's most important role is that of wife, mother and manager of the household, but for Manga and despite the financial burden of school fees, she wants all her children to be educated “They have to have a diploma if they want to live a decent life later” The key message that Manga has received from the Raeda Rifiya who visits here every week consists of simple hygienic principles: washing hands with water and soap after dealing with the poultry, covering nose and mouth when handling the birds, reporting any cases of sick poultry and suspected human cases, keeping poultry away from living areas and if possible in confined spaces and keeping poultry away from children. As now as the chicken have been moved onto the roof top, the house is cleaner and Manga spends less time tidying and cleaning the rooms. Yet, like most rural people, she wakes up very early in the morning to prepare breakfast for her family, and as soon as they leave, she is up on the roof top to feed the chickens and clean the place. “But believe me, there’s no more going out to there with bear feet or without having a scarf protecting my mouth and nose” she says laughingly.
Similar to those of other women in her position, the economic rights of Manga are determined only by her role within the family. Without personal income of her own, she faces economic challenges. However, unlike some of her neighbours who can earn an extra income by breeding poultry, Manga has only a small flock of chickens “just enough to get fresh eggs for the children and a nice roast chicken on a special occasion” In the past, people in the village slaughtered and de-feathered their chicken in front of their main door and left there, in the middle of the street, feathers, guts and blood. Manga admits that things have improved since the daily visits of the Raedat who have also explained that a sick chicken should be immediately reported to the vet or the village health clinic, and then killed, put in a plastic back, chloral poured over and dropped in the garbage bin. “If we take all these precautions and follow the advice of the Raeda, our poultry will be healthy, our children will be healthy and we will not catch any disease” reckons Manga. Some of Manga’s neighbours breed also ducks and geese but Manga is a practical woman and considers these birds dirty, noisy, messy and even aggressive. In fact, keeping ducks and geese can even produce unintended costs and create problems. Not long ago her neighbours considered building a pond for all the ducks of the village, but the project was dropped when Manga managed to persuade her neighbours that the pond would cost a lot of money and would become a breeding nest for all sorts of pests, flies and mosquitoes. When in February 2006, the Ministry of Health confirmed the country’s first case of human infection with the H5N1 virus, the highly pathogenic strain of avian flu had been already detected in 3 governorates, dealing a huge blow to the poultry industry. Almost two years later, a WHO Eastern Mediterranean update mentioned the case of an 8-year-old boy from Etsa District in the Fayyum governorate. Having been hospitalized in the Fayyum Fever Hospital, the boy was declared infected with H5N1 after undergoing a series of tests carried out by the Ministry of Health and Population Central Public Health Laboratories.
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