ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

Geography
St. Vincent and the Grenadines are a Caribbean island chain of over 600 islands in the Windward Islands. Geographic coordinates are 13° 15' N, 61° 12' W. St. Vincent and the Grenadines has a land area of 389 sq. km (Saint Vincent 344 sq km). The Grenadines include 32 islands and cays. The capital of St. Vincent is Kingstown. The terrain is volcanic and mountainous, with the highest peak, Soufriere, rising to 1,219 meters (4,000 ft.). The climate is tropical. The population is 118,149 with an annual population growth rate of 0.248%. 

Map Showing the Location of Poultry Farms in St. Vincent

The Poultry Industry
In St Vincent approximately three hundred thousand broiler birds are reared annually. The layer bird population was estimated at 14,000 birds producing 3,500,000 eggs in 2006.  Annual per capita poultry meat consumption in 2006 was approximately 65 kg and annual per capita egg consumption was 40 eggs.  St Vincent imported approximately 9,500 metric tonnes of processed poultry meat from the USA in 2006. Table eggs are only imported during the Christmas season to meet the additional demand.
There are 55 commercial poultry farmers in St. Vincent, the majority of whom are egg farmers. Most of the poultry farms are situated in the southern part of the island (see map). The largest broiler farmer rears 2500 birds at a time while the largest layer farmer had 7000 birds in lay in 2006.
There are no commercial processing plants in St Vincent resulting in most broiler farmers slaughtering their birds in the back yard. The Government of St Vincent owns and manages a hatchery which is the only hatchery in the island. Hatching eggs are imported from the USA twice a month and the hatchery sells day-old chicks to the farmers. Occasionally, day-old chicks are imported from Barbados and Trinidad. The government also owns a small breeder flock which produces eggs for the hatchery. All day-old chicks are vaccinated in the hatchery against Newcastle Disease and Infectious Bronchitis before being sold to farmers. In addition, layers are vaccinated in the field against Marek’s Disease and Gumboro Disease.   All the vaccines in use are imported from the USA and are required to be registered and licensed by the Ministry of Agriculture before they can be used.
There are six veterinarians and eight veterinary assistants employed to the Official Veterinary Services of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Veterinary Services routinely conducts surveillance as part of its poultry surveillance programme concentrating on the prevention and control of diseases including AI. Several workshops and seminars on AI have been conducted by the Vet Services for the benefit of poultry farmers. The staff of the poultry surveillance unit conducts regular farm visits to monitor the health status of the birds and to educate the farmer on animal health issues.
There is a small diagnostic laboratory where the laboratory staff can carry out the Agar Gel Immuno-Diffusion Test; plans are in place to acquire an ELISA machine in the near future. Rapid ELISA based tests kits for AI are being used in the field and arrangements have been made to send samples to the CIRAD Laboratory in Guadeloupe for AI testing. A Poultry Association was recently formed to represent the interest of the poultry farmers.

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