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Poultry farmers in the country have called on government to lift the restrictions on the movement and sale of live poultry as Christmas festive season approaches. Government through its food and agriculture ministry in July this year placed a ban on the sale and transport of live poultry in a bid to stop the spread of bird flu disease which hit parts of the country. The H5N1 virus killed thousands of birds compelling authorities to cull several thousands to limit spread to only affected farms. Over 40,000 birds were destroyed in three regions of Ghana�Ashanti, Volta and Greater Accra at the height of the outbreak. Government indicated farmers whose birds were culled by the Veterinary Services Directorate as part of measures to contain the outbreak would be adequately compensated to cover their losses. Some crates of eggs and poultry feed were also destroyed in the process. Some poultry farmers who spoke on condition of anonymity told Today that the measures put in place by the agric ministry have proved successful and the disease appeared to be under control. Consequently they wanted the ban to be removed before Christmas to enable them take advantage of the festive season, a period during which patronage of live birds is very high among Ghanaian shoppers. The farmers revealed that the restrictions which were enforced with the support of the police were the best control measures as they helped to contain the spread of the deadly avian disease. However, the embargo negatively affected their sales and with the disease over �officials must remove the ban,� a concerned farmer told Today yesterday. One other source revealed that even before the outbreak of the disease, selling poultry products in the country was a challenge and this was compounded by the disease as well as the subsequent ban on movement of the birds. �In Ghana to sell live chicken you need to move them to market centres but that has been taken away by the ban, we are really suffering; it�s been a while now and we haven�t had any new cases. It is about time they lifted the ban,� the source said. The farmers explained that already they have old layers which needed to be sold so that they could be replaced, and that the only period the layers can be sold is Christmas. They pointed out that if the ban was not lifted there was no way they could replace old layers and that would mean the collapse of the sector. It would be recalled that Parliament on July 18, 2015 approved an amount of GH�11 million Ghana cedis from the Contingency Fund to support the ministry of agriculture�s emergency plan to combat the outbreak of the Avian Influenza in the country. The amount went into the purchase of reagents for detection of the disease, sample tests at the World Health Animal Organisation and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) laboratories. Part also went into purchasing vehicles to facilitate the movement of the monitoring and surveillance teams to patrol poultry farms and wild bird sanctuaries nationwide. The package also included publicity campaign and compensation for farmers. At the time of filing this report, Today was unable after all attempts to get an official response from government regarding the concerns of the farmers. The leadership of the Poultry Farmers Association of Ghana also indicated to Today that they would speak to the paper on the matter today.