|
Deadly bird flu found in Nigeria
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-09 09:48
The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected on a large commercial
chicken farm in Nigeria — the first reported outbreak in Africa, the World
Organization for Animal Health said Wednesday.
The outbreak appears to be restricted to birds, and no human infections have
been reported, the Paris-based organization said.
Nigeria said the outbreak was on a farm in Jaji, a village in the northern
state of Kaduna. Agriculture Minister Adamu Bello told reporters in Abuja that
the deadly strain of the virus was detected in samples taken Jan. 16 from birds
on the farm.
"We are dealing with a new continent," said Alex Thiermann, an expert for the
World Organization for Animal Health, known as the OIE, told The Associated
Press.
Bird flu began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003, forcing the
slaughter of more than 100 million birds and jumping to humans. The World Health
Organization has confirmed 88 deaths from bird flu out of a total of 165 cases
of human infection. Almost all the cases have been in Asia, but the disease
recently has been detected in Europe and the Middle East.
A bird is seen perched on a tree in Nigeria.
The deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu has spread to Africa for the first
time, Nigeria said, killing thousands of birds and raising fears of a
catastrophic expansion of the
disease.[AFP/file] | Though all the people who
contracted the disease so far are believed to have been infected through contact
with sick birds, experts are concerned the disease could mutate into a form
easily spread from human to human, potentially triggering a global pandemic.
Experts have long been concerned about Africa's ability to deal with a bird
flu outbreak. Thiermann noted that some African countries have "very weak"
veterinary systems.
Thiermann said all 46,000 birds on the Nigerian farm have been killed and
their bodies disposed of, and Nigerian authorities have banned the movement of
birds and people from the farm. Officials also are investigating whether birds
were transferred to other farms in the past 21 days, and they, too, are being
quarantined, he said.
"We feel that they are doing everything they can and they certainly need
help," he said.
Additional protective clothing was being moved Wednesday from Senegal to
Nigeria, he said.
Experts had suspected that migrating wild birds could spread the disease to
Africa, said Thiermann, noting that Nigeria is on a "major flyway."
A Nigerian man sells chickens on the streets
of Lagos, February 8, 2006. African countries scrambled on Wednesday to
limit the spread of deadly H5N1 bird flu after the continent's first
outbreak was confirmed in Nigeria. The disease can jump to humans from
infected birds and has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle
East since 2003.[Reuters] | A laboratory in Padua,
Italy, identified the H5N1 strain in the Nigerian birds, OIE said in a
statement. It added further tests were being carried out to determine how
closely the Nigerian strain matched the H5N1 strain detected elsewhere in the
world.
The Italian Health Ministry said the bird flu strain is very similar to those
found in Siberia and Mongolia.
The OIE said it was working with the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization
to "coordinate a common response to this event."
A team of experts to assess and provide technical advice will leave for
Nigeria toward the end of this week, said Thiermann, who is a special adviser to
the OIE's director.
Health officials had feared a deadly bird flu virus could enter impoverished,
loosely governed African regions, where many people raise chickens at home for
personal consumption.
Nigerian officials said Wednesday that initial tests on chickens that
mysteriously died in Kano, a state neighboring Kaduna, showed no signs of bird
flu. Salihu Jibrin, head of the state's livestock department said at least
60,000 birds have died in Kano state in recent weeks. Tests were ongoing.
Nigerian authorities nevertheless urged farmers to monitor their flocks and
report strange ailments to authorities. Kano set up a committee of veterinary
surgeons to visit farms and watch out for evidence of a bird flu outbreak after
some poultry farms reported large-scale bird deaths last week.
Large-scale poultry farms aside, many Nigerian families live in close
quarters with chickens and other fowl, which are an important food source. The
birds generally are kept with other domestic animals at night but are allowed to
roam freely during the day.
Controlling the spread of the virus could be particularly difficult in
Africa, where central governments often exert little control in far-flung rural
areas most likely to have people keeping fowl in their homes.
|
