THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS

Geography
The Bahamas is an archipelago comprising approximately seven hundred islands and more than two thousand cays covering a total area of 259,000 square kilometers.  Only thirty islands are permanently inhabited. New Providence with the capital Nassau has over two hundred and twelve thousand inhabitants with the rest of the population spread among the other islands. The combined land area of the inhabited islands is about 14,680 square kilometers (see picture I).

There are twenty-nine ports of entry into this country which have check-points manned by Customs Officers. The total population of The Bahamas is 305,655 with an annual population growth rate of 0.602%. The Bahamas for this exercise is divided into three zones, I, II, and III as is depicted in picture I above. This division is based on population size and proximity of the islands to each other. It is note worthy that proximity does not in all cases equate to ease of inter-island movements. The zones create focus in this instance and by placing trained first responders in different sections of each zone activities such as surveillance are more easily accomplished.
The climate is tropical marine and moderated by warm waters of Gulf Stream; the terrain is long, flat coral formations with some low rounded hills.

The Poultry Industry
 The total broiler population in 2002 was approximately 7 million birds and there were approximately 300,000 birds in lay producing over 54 million eggs for an annual per capita egg consumption of 175 eggs. Annual per capita poultry meat intake was 60 kg. There are only two large commercial broiler farmers in the Bahamas. Over 8000 metric tonnes of poultry meat was imported in 2002 from the USA while local production that year was just over 10,000 metric tonnes.
There is one commercial processing plant in the country.
Day-old chicks are imported from the USA on a weekly basis. Imported chicks are routinely vaccinated against Newcastle Disease before leaving the hatchery of origin.
 The Official Veterinary Services employ six veterinarians. There is no diagnostic laboratory but plans are in place to construct one in the near future.  For AI testing, only the ELISA based rapid test is done at the present time.  A poultry disease surveillance document was recently drafted by the Veterinary Services and will be implemented soon. The training of animal health technicians to undertake the surveillance in the many islands is an on-going process. Poultry farmers are also being trained in bio-security and information on AI is being disseminated to all stake holders in the industry.
There were no outbreaks of diseases in the poultry industry in the past five years. The bio-security on the large farms is at level 2 whereas on the small farms it is at level 3.

Focal Point

Coordinator and person in charge of the official sanitary avian programme:    

Dr. Maurice Isaacs
Email:   maurice@batelnet.bs

The Bahamas has a Poultry Association but it is not considered very active.