By Francis Lubega
6th Sept 2023
The Members of Parliament on the parliamentary committee of HIV/AIDS have lashed out at the officials of National Drug Authority (NDA) for hiding information from the public that farmers are using ARVs for fattening and treating animals and birds.
MPs say that the concealment of information from the public could explain the increased cases of liver diseases in Uganda.
The MP’s dissatisfaction followed a revelation by the Senior Inspector of Drugs at NDA Amos Atumanya before them indicating that the Authority first received reports implicating farmers including poultry in using ARV drugs on birds and animals in 2013.
Atumanya further informed that Committee that that report followed a research conducted in 2014 which also showed similar incidents but this information wasn’t made public until in April 2023 when Makerere University published its research warning about ARVs use animals.
He however explained to the committee that the use of ARVs in livestock farming is not a recognized practice but the practice is potentially dangerous.
Atumanya attributes the increased use of ARVs in animals and birds to local beliefs, misconceptions, or other motivations.
The Agule county MP, Polycarp Ogwari has pinned NDA for staying silent yet the young children in schools are getting ulcers because cooks add Panadol to the beans.
The Poultry Association of Uganda wrote to Makerere University researchers requesting them to conduct a thorough investigation into the entire poultry sector to understand the extent at which ARVs are being used in poultry farming.
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