Ivory Coast confirms bird flu

2006-05-04 09:08

Abidjan - The Ivory Coast government on Wednesday confirmed several outbreaks of the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu in both wild birds and poultry.

Alphonse Douaty, minister for animal production and fisheries resources, said: "Our country is a carrier of bird flu."

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) had announced in Paris last week that two outbreaks of bird flu had occurred in Abidjan, making Ivory Coast the seventh country in Africa to report the disease.

European labs confirmed the viral strains after the highly pathogenic type of H5N1 avian influenza, affected seven backyard chickens, nine ducks and a sparrowhawk.

Sparrowhawk found dead

The Ivorian government said that it was awaiting tests from an OIE reference laboratory in Padua, Italy.

Douaty said: "We finally received the results from the OIE laboratory. In the Abidjan district, as our national laboratories suspected, a sparrowhawk found dead in Treichville died of bird flu.

"Ducks suspected of infection did in fact die of bird flu, and that is in addition to laying hens in Bingerville on the outskirts of the city."

The first African country to report bird flu was Nigeria on February 8.

Since then, the list had been joined by Egypt, where four people had been killed, as well as Niger, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Ivory Coast.

- AFP