Panic selling spreading H5N1

2006-02-15 13:47

Aminu Abubakar

Kano - Nigeria's chief veterinary expert on Tuesday warned that panic selling of chickens was fuelling a growing epidemic of bird flu as fresh outbreaks were reported in Africa's most populous country.

The warning came as President Olusegun Obasanjo prepared to meet officials from donor agencies, such as the UN World Health Organisation, and diplomats in Abuja to thank them for help provided and to appeal for more aid, said sources.

Dr Lami Lombin, director of the National Veterinary Research Institute, said distress sales by poultry farmers were exacerbating the situation in the sprawling nation, where the disease has thus far been confined to the north.

"I think they should stop the panic, because the panic makes them want to sell out. We've told them not to panic," Lombin said, adding that her message to them was to "keep it on your farm".

Lombin stressed that the government would compensate farmers for chickens that die and help them restock after the crisis abates.

Public information campaign

"If we can get them to understand that, the spread of the disease will slow down, but the panic pushes them to dispose of their birds," she said.

Lombin said that a public information campaign launched by the government would be the key to stemming the outbreak.

Lombin said avian influenza had been detected in two more farms in Plateau State overnight, bringing the total there to five, and that samples would be sent to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation to check if it is the deadly H5N1 strain, as with previous outbreaks.

"We are hoping that we will soon have the reagents to test for H5N1 ourselves, that is our most urgent need," she said.

Mohammed Belhocine, the Nigeria country chief for the World Health Organisation, stressed that a more vigorous information campaign should be launched with three simple messages.

Undetected cases?

They were "avoid all contact with chickens, wash your hands after touching chickens or meat and refrain from killing any chickens, especially if they appear sick," he said.

When asked if there could already have been some undetected cases among humans, he said it could be a possibility as Nigeria "is a country of 130 million people, with zones difficult to access and with varying cultures, like Islam, whose followers bury their dead the same day."

Officials in Jigawa and Borno states in the north of the country, where there have been as yet no confirmed cases, said that farmers were dumping chickens on the market.

Scientists from the US centre for disease control (CDC), the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UN World Organisation for Animal Health have come to Nigeria to help study the outbreak.

- SAPA