H5N1 bird flu spreads to Africa
2006-02-08 14:06
Abuja - An outbreak of bird flu among
poultry in Nigeria is the H5N1 strain that can kill people, the
World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said in a statement
on Wednesday, the first time the virus has been found in Africa.
The OIE said it had detected a highly pathogenic form of
H5N1 after testing at a laboratory in the Italian city of Padua.
Suspicions about bird flu were raised after the deaths of
thousands of birds in northern Nigeria in recent days.
Further tests were being carried out to establish how
similar it was to currently known H5N1 strains, added the
statement from the Paris-based OIE.
An outbreak could have devastating consequences in Nigeria,
Africa's most populous country, where millions of people have
chickens in their backyards.
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu had not previously been
detected in Africa, though other strains have.
Scientists fear that H5N1, which has killed at least 88
people in seven countries since it re-emerged in late 2003,
could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to
person, sparking a human influenza pandemic.
So far, victims have contracted the disease through close
contact with infected birds.
The Nigerian authorities have taken preventive measures
including culling, quarantine, controls on animal movement and
disinfection of infected premises.
The outbreak affected birds in battery cages in Jaji village
in Kaduna state in the north of the country, the OIE said.
In Kano city, capital of neighbouring Kano state where most
of the poultry have died, traders in the market were trying to
sell chicken at less than half the normal price as news spread
of the unexplained poultry deaths.
Human mortality rates in Nigeria are among the highest in
the world and people are often buried without any formal medical
check, making it extremely difficult to know whether any new
disease has appeared.
A federal Health Ministry official said on Tuesday between
10 000 and 15 000 dead poultry had been destroyed and the
standard procedure was to burn the carcasses.
Salihu Jibrin, head of veterinary services at the state's
Agriculture Ministry, said teams had been sent to various parts
of the state to try and determine how many poultry were dying
and what farmers were doing in response. He said the state had
issued no statistics so far on the outbreak.
(Additional reporting by Silvia Aloisi in Rome and Mike Oboh in
Kano)