Nigeria: 130 Farms Positive - WHO

[DB]

Nigeria says deadly bird flu strain found in two more states

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/arti...1000598d55.txt

Nigeria says deadly bird flu strain found in two more states
02/09/2006 10:08:10 AM


<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=430 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=200></TD><TD width=30></TD><TD class=cutline></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been found in two more Nigerian states, the Agriculture Ministry said Thursday, a day after the country reported the first known outbreak of the virus in Africa.

The strain has been confirmed at two farms in Kano state and one in adjoining Plateau state, said Tope Ajakaiye, an Agriculture Ministry spokesman. Africa's first documented case was reported Wednesday in the northern state of Kaduna. No human infections have been reported in the country.

Nigeria ordered the quarantine and killing of any fowl suspected of carrying bird flu in hopes of halting its spread, officials said.

"The federal government is doing everything to contain the disease within the three centers that have been located," Ajakaiye said in a statement.

Bird farms across northern Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 130 million people, are now under quarantine, and a special assessment team traveled around the region Thursday, said Junaidu Maina, director of Nigeria's livestock department. He did not say to how many of Nigeria's 36 states were under the quarantine order.

Nigeria's Agriculture Minister Adamu Bello on Wednesday confirmed findings by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health, known as the OIE, of an H5N1 outbreak on a commercial poultry farm in Kaduna.

The farm had a total of 46,000 chicken, geese and ostriches. About 40,000 of them died of bird flu and the other 6,000 were destroyed, according to OIE.

International experts from the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization and the OIE were to travel Friday to Nigeria to help, said Alex Thiermann, an OIE expert.

Bird flu began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003, forcing the slaughter of more than 100 million birds. The virus jumped to humans, and the World Health Organization has confirmed 88 deaths from bird flu out of a total of 166 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.

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.

Indonesia said Thursday that two women from the same town have contracted the virus.

China said Wednesday that a 26-year-old woman had bird flu -- the 11th known case in that country.

Sub-Saharan Africa, with about 600 million of the world's poorest people, is particularly ill-equipped to deal with a major health crisis. With weak and impoverished government institutions in regions where many people keep chickens for badly needed food, experts say any mass killings of the animals -- often a first step in controlling bird flu -- will be difficult to pull off.

The World Health Organization said Nigeria has a poultry population of about 140 million and that the country's overtaxed veterinary services needed international help, while calling on other African countries to act quickly against any suspected outbreaks.

[Susan]

Re: Bird disease in flu-hit Nigeria &quot;spreading like wildfire&quot;

The formost danger in Africa is of course non-testing and misdiagnosis. "Mysterious" and often never diagnosed diseases pop up and kill a few hundred here and there on a regular basis as is.

[DB]

WHO: Avian influenza in Africa

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/...s/2006/s03/en/

9 February 2006
Avian influenza in Africa: statement by the Director-General of WHO
The confirmation of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry in Africa is a cause for great concern and demands immediate action. This is the first reported incidence of this highly pathogenic virus on the continent, where people are already enduring the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other serious infectious diseases. The H5N1 virus now confirmed in Nigeria poses a risk to human health and livelihood.

The single most important public health priority at this stage is to warn people about the dangers of close contact with sick or dead birds infected with H5N1. The vast majority of all human cases and deaths from H5N1 have occurred in previously healthy children and young adults.

Experience in Asian countries and most recently in Turkey underscores the fact that immediate, clear public information is critical to help protect human health. Slaughtering, defeathering or butchering infected, sick or dead birds can put people at risk. The home slaughter and consumption of birds which appear to be sick is high-risk behaviour. Ideally, people culling and disposing of birds should have protective equipment.

WHO is offering support to the Government of Nigeria's national public information campaign. This campaign may include delivery of messages to communities during the nationwide house-to-house polio immunization campaign beginning on Saturday. The polio eradication infrastructure in Nigeria is also being mobilized to support other essential surveillance and protective measures, such as monitoring for human cases, support for "early warning systems", and logistic support for containment, treatment, and laboratory functions.

This latest outbreak confirms that no country is immune to H5N1. Every country is at risk. Every country must prepare. There is a risk that outbreaks of H5N1 infection in birds could spread within Nigeria and into neighbouring countries. Nigeria is one of several African countries located on the Black Sea-Mediterranean flyway used by migratory birds. Human and animal health services must be on high alert, sharing information and quickly reporting any signs of disease in birds or humans that could be due to H5N1 avian influenza.

African health systems are already struggling to cope with children and adults suffering from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, respiratory infections and other infectious conditions. Human cases of H5N1 may be difficult to distinguish from other illnesses. We simply do not know what the impact of exposure to avian influenza will be on the many people who may be already immunocompromised and in a fragile state of health. Health workers must be fully alert and samples must be taken and sent to laboratories. When human cases of H5N1 are identified, coordinated human and animal health investigations will be essential.

If the H5N1 virus changes to allow it to pass easily from person to person, and it goes unchecked, this could trigger an influenza pandemic. H5N1 is spreading rapidly across the world. All countries must take measures to protect human health against avian flu, and prepare for a pandemic.
There is no time to waste. We are ready to help all African countries take measures to reduce the risks of H5N1.
For more information contact:

Maria Cheng
Communications Officer - WHO
Telephone: +41 22 791 3982
Mobile phone: +41 79 500 6576
E-mail: chengm@who.int

Christine McNab
Communications Officer - WHO
Telephone: +41 22 791 4688
Mobile phone: +41 79 254 6815
E-mail: mcnabc@who.int<!-- / message -->

[Sally Furniss]

Fears grow as bird flu hits Africa

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3567746a12,00.html

Fears grow as bird flu hits Africa

10 February 2006
JAJI: The unexplained deaths of large numbers of birds in northern Nigeria fanned fears that the H5N1 avian flu virus was spreading rapidly after it was detected in Africa for the first time.

Bird flu has killed at least 88 people since it re-emerged in late 2003, most of the victims in east Asia. Indonesia said on Thursday that two women in their 20s had tested positive for the virus and were being treated at a specialist Jakarta hospital.
The virus has been spreading steadily westwards, killing four children in an outbreak in eastern Turkey last month and also claiming the life of a teenager in war-ravaged Iraq.
Greece said it had found an H5 bird flu virus in three swans and has sent samples to Britain to find out if it is the deadly H5N1 strain. If so, it would be the first confirmed case of H5N1 in wild birds in a European Union member state.
The World Health Organisation expressed concern over the arrival of the virus in the west African state of Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.
Many observers say that African countries lack the health and disease control systems to contain the virus.
"Experience in several other countries has shown how quickly the H5N1 virus can spread and become firmly established in poultry," the WHO said in a statement.
Victims contract the virus through close contact with infected poultry.
But scientists fear that H5N1 could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a human influenza pandemic in which millions could die.
The unexplained poultry deaths in northern Nigeria raise the possibility that the virus has already spread from four big commercial farms to small farms and even households, posing a greater threat to human health.
"We are afraid that what happened at Sambawa Farms will happen here too. That's why we went to the vet to get medicine," said farmer Mohammed Sanusi, who is treating his birds with medicine for intestinal infections, not bird flu.
The Agriculture Ministry said 45,000 chickens had died at Sambawa Farms in Kaduna state, and confirmed cases of H5N1 had also been found at two farms in the neighbouring Kano state and at one farm in Plateau state, which also borders Kaduna.
Nigerian authorities, backed by the WHO and UNICEF, plan to use a polio immunisation campaign this weekend to spread the word on bird flu.
"We are planning to tap into the polio network to pass on public education measures about bird flu," WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said.
"It's a great opportunity for us to educate parents about prevention and the kinds of risks they should keep their children from," she added.
The virus has been found in parts of eastern Europe and officials are concerned it could spread further west as migratory birds return in the coming months.
Greece's neighbour Bulgaria has also sent samples to Britain for testing after finding H5 in dead swans. A series of H5N1 outbreaks have already been confirmed in birds in Romania which shares a border with Bulgaria.
The Dutch Farm Ministry said on Thursday it would order poultry producers to keep birds indoors from next month to prevent the threat of infection from migratory birds.
Germany has announced similar measures, while the European Commission is considering funding emergency short-term poultry vaccination.

[viamede]

Little sign of action to halt bird flu in Nigeria

Little sign of action to halt bird flu in Nigeria
Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:16 PM GMT


By Daniel Flynn
DANBARE, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian authorities said they were acting to contain an outbreak of deadly H5N1 bird flu but there was little evidence of any concrete measures in the worst affected areas on Friday.
In the northern state of Kano, where two farms have confirmed cases of the virus, a Reuters reporter who visited four poultry farms found no official checks had been carried out on the birds' health and no measures were in place to restrict the movement of poultry.
In a field close to a fifth farm, two workers were carrying the carcasses of chicken that had died in recent days with their bare hands. They were wearing normal clothes and sandals and the only protective equipment they had were surgical face masks.
"We have over 1,000 birds now that have died. We want to bring them out and burn them," said one of the workers, who did not wish to give his name.
The field was a short distance from Sovet Farms, one of four Nigerian farms where H5N1 was detected in Africa's first known outbreak of the virus.
There was no sign of any quarantine or culling, despite government announcements that suspect farms would be isolated and suspect birds killed. Farmers and workers appeared bewildered by questions about bird flu.
"I have not seen this kind of infection before. I have no idea what it is," said a farm worker at Sovet who gave his name only as Shehu.
Abdullahi Saidu, owner of the farm, said in just a few days 20,000 out of his 25,000 chickens had died and he culled the rest without any assistance from authorities.
Saidu said he had received no reports of ill health among any of the 65 workers who he employed before the outbreak.
FEARS FOR HUMANS
Bird flu has killed at least 88 people since late 2003. most in east Asia.
Victims contract the virus through direct contact with infected birds, but there are fears it could mutate into form that passes easily from person to person. If it does, it could spark a human influenza pandemic in which millions could die.
Contagion to humans is a major worry in a country where people and poultry mingle everywhere.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was sending a team of 7 or 8 experts to Nigeria to try to prevent human cases of the disease.
In northern Kaduna state, where H5N1 was first found, teams of officials searched for sick birds and tried to find out if any people have fallen ill after contact with birds.
"We are driving to poultry farms to find out if they are having any problems with their chickens," said Aliyu Dawobe, a spokesman for the Kaduna state emergency response agency, by telephone from an agency minivan in the countryside.
The H5N1 strain has been identified in birds in four Nigerian commercial farms, in Kaduna, Kano and Plateau states.
But unexplained poultry deaths have been reported elsewhere in Africa's most populous country, including on smaller farms, raising fears that the disease had already spread to households where chickens and people are in constant contact.
In Nigeria like much of sub-Saharan Africa, most poultry is bought and sold live and slaughtered at home.
Chickens run free in the countryside but also in cities, and public transport is usually full of people carrying poultry in their arms or in baskets.
Several African countries near and far from Nigeria banned poultry imports from the West African nation, but this could be difficult to enforce due to long and porous borders.
(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon in Abuja)

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/news...LU-NIGERIA.xml

[viamede]

Bird Flu: Another 60,000 Fowls Die

Bird Flu: Another 60,000 Fowls Die

This Day (Lagos)
NEWS
February 10, 2006 </B>
Posted to the web February 10, 2006

By Moses Jolayemi, Paul Ohia, Cyprian Aiteobhor, Agaju Madugba and Kingsley Nwezeh
Lagos/Kaduna/Abuja
A large-scale slaughtering is underway at the Sambawa Farms where thousands of chickens have reportedly died of bird flu as another 60,000 fowls yesterday died from the outbreak of the deadly disease.
A team of Nigerian experts is heading for the farm, owned by Sports Minister Saidu Balarabe Sambawa, in Kaduna State to carry out the killings.
Agriculture Minister Adamu Bello said all birds at any farm where suspicious deaths had occurred would be killed.
In a quick response to arrest the situation, the United States Government yesterday donated $25 million to support the Federal Government's fight against the dreaded bird flu disease.
In addition, US has offered technical assistance in a bid to contain the disease recently detected in Kaduna, Kano and Plateau States as well as the provision of 2000 protective suits to be used in the affected areas.
This was disclosed by the Deputy Chief of mission of the US Embassy in Abuja, Mr Thomas Furey when he paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Adamu Bello in Abuja.
Technical assistance, according to him, would be offered through the US Center for Disease Control in Kenya. The team in Kenya, he said was being deployed to Nigeria to work with WHO and also establish a testing laboratory for quick surveillance activities.
In his response, the minister thanked the US Government for its show of concern and willingness to offer assistance while assuring that the Federal Government was doing all in its power to arrest the situation
International experts were reported yesterday to be heading for Kaduna, as well as Kano and Jos where the other deaths took place as government officials are investigating whether the deaths of thousands of chickens in the two neighbouring states were also caused by the bird flu.
Chickens started dying in the area four weeks ago, raising fears that bird flu could have spread across Nigeria - and to neighbouring countries - before it was confirmed on Wednesday.
Quarantines and other restrictions are only now being imposed on farms near where the chickens have died.
Dr David Nabarro of the World Health Organisation (WHO) told the BBC the virus "might be quite widespread".
"If it's in Nigeria it might also be in other countries that are less well-equipped."
He said governments and ordinary people would have to take "very, very strong precautions" to protect themselves and stop the disease spreading.
Sambawa reportedly told the BBC's Adamu Yusuf that he suspected the outbreak was down to "sabotage", possibly by disgruntled former workers at the farm, which used to have 40,000 chickens.
The sports minister was said to have spoken by telephone from the African Cup of Nations in Egypt, where he saw Nigeria lose in the semi-finals on Tuesday.
The agriculture minister has suggested illegal poultry imports may be behind the outbreak.
The disease may also have been spread by migrating birds according to reports.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed its readiness to respond to requests from Nigeria for support but warned against slaughtering, defeathering, butchering, and preparation for consumption of diseased poultry.
In a statement yesterday from the regional office in Brazzaville, Congo, WHO said it is ready "to respond to requests from Nigeria for support, including assessment teams and the provision of essential supplies and equipment". It added that infectious disease staff at WHO's regional office in Harare, Zimbabwe held an emergency meeting yesterday to assess the situation, plan a response, and evaluate the possible risk to other African countries.
WHO added that a team of experts experienced in the investigation of outbreaks has been placed on standby noting that the country lies along a flight route for birds migrating from central Asia.
"Although all evidence to date indicates that the virus does not spread easily from birds to humans, careful monitoring of the situation is warranted.
Experience in several other countries has shown how quickly the H5N1 virus can spread and become firmly established in poultry. The ability of this virus to cause rare but severe disease in humans is well documented." WHO added.
Meanwhile, the Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, has raised a response committee to carry out further investigatons into the outbreak of the bird flu virus at Sambawa Farms, as consumers of poultry products continue to patronise poultry markets in the metropolis.
Inuagurating the committee at the Government House yesterday, Makarfi directed that all commercial poultry farms and their staff should be tested for the virus while asking all medical centres to be on the alert and watch out for patients who may have symptoms of the disease.
Makarfi who noted that the bird flu issue is not as alarming as people think also noted that the Sambawa Farms bird virus was actually detected in January 2006 following which the place was quarantined while specimens were taken for laboratory analysis results of which were confirmed last weekend.
But Secretary of the Kano state branch of Poultry Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Auwalu Haruna, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Kano that more chickens were likely to die.
He, therefore, appealed to both federal and state governments to take a decisive action to arrest the situation.The state Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Salihu Jibrin, said samples from the infected birds had been sent to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and the Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, near Jos, for analysis.
In a related development, desperate chicken farmers are slaughtering their birds and selling them to the public at give-away prices to reduce their losses.
NAN reports yesterday said hawkers have taken to the major streets in the metropolis selling chickens at N150 each. However, most residents are refusing to buy.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has however advised Nigerians not to panic about the recent outbreak, saying that relevant emergency management agencies are already handling the situation.
A statement by NEMA's Information Officer Mr Ibrahim Farinloye said the risk from bird flu "is generally low to most people because the viruses infect only those in close contact with the infected birds, as such there is no single case of human infections reported in the country so far."
The statement, however, advised Nigerians to look out for flu-like symptoms in human ranging from fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches to eye infections, pneumonia, and severe respiratory diseases.
NEMA added that eating well cooked poultry meat has never been reported to pose any danger to humans and as such there is no cause for alarm.
"Studies have suggested that the spread of avian influeza viruses from one ill person to another has been reported very rarely ,and transmission has not been observed to continue beyond the infected person," the statement added.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200602100417.html

[viamede]

UN agencies call for halt to Nigerian poultry movements

UN agencies call for halt to Nigerian poultry movements

ROME (AFX) - Two UN organisations called on Nigerian authorities toimmediately close down poultry markets to prevent the spread of the deadly birdflu virus. "The movement of poultry should be stopped immediately to contain thedisease. People should not import or trade livestock or livestock products," theFood and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Organisation for Animal Health(OIE) said in a joint statement. They said neighbouring countries Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Niger andTogo should increase surveillance measures, and veterinary staff mobilised totighten border inspections. The UN bodies welcomed emergency measures already put in place by theNigerian authorities in the affected areas of Kaduna, Kano and Plateau, but saidcontrols "need to be intensified, applying standard procedures recommended byFAO and OIE guidelines." The UN agencies said they would send a joint mission to Nigeria within 48hours, to assess the situation and advise of further emergency measures. Nigerian officials warned earlier Friday that the bird flu virus isspreading rapidly through poultry flocks in the north of the country.newsdesk@afxnews.comafp/joyhttp://freeserve.advfn.com/news_UN-agencies-call-for-halt-to-Nigerian-poultry-movements_14154335.html

[viamede]

Nigerians handle dead poultry unaware of bird flu

Nigerians handle dead poultry unaware of bird flu
Fri Feb 10, 2006 4:44 PM GMT


By Daniel Flynn
HAWAN DAWAKI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian poultry farm workers used their bare hands to throw dead chickens onto fires as village children stood by to watch in an area where the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been found.
Villagers said their domestic poultry were dying too, reinforcing suspicions that bird flu may be present not only in large commercial farms but also in people's backyards in Africa's most populous country.
At a farm near Hawan Dawaki village in the northern state of Kano, where two farms have confirmed cases of H5N1, workers in normal clothes and sandals carried handfuls of dead and dying chickens to a field to burn them.
"We are working on this farm without taking care of our health, but what else can we do? We are calling on the government to come and help us," said Alhaj Danliti, the manager of the farm, which is a stone's throw away from the village.
He said the farm had lost 10,000 chickens, almost its entire stock, and he did not know the nature of their disease. Several chickens collapsed and died with a yellow liquid leaking from their beaks.
In Hawan Dawaki, village elder Muhammadu Musa said he and his neighbour had lost about 150 chickens in recent weeks.
"Both the big ones and the newborn ones are dying. When they die we take them and throw them away. We don't eat them," he said.
In Nigeria, like much of sub-Saharan Africa, most poultry is bought and sold live and slaughtered at home.
Chickens run free in the countryside but also in cities, and public transport is usually full of people carrying poultry in their arms or in baskets.
FEARS FOR HUMANS
The outbreak of H5N1, confirmed in Kano and two other Nigerian states, is the first known appearance in Africa of the virus, which has killed at least 88 people mostly in Asia.
Nigeria has reported no human casualties, but it would be hard for authorities to know because health services are almost non-existent, mortality rates are among the highest in the world and people are often buried without a medical check.
The government has ordered suspect birds culled and suspect farms quarantined, but there was little evidence of any concrete measures in the worst affected areas.
On five poultry farms in Kano state, Reuters found no official checks had been carried out on the birds' health and no measures were in place to restrict the movement of poultry. Workers appeared bewildered by questions about bird flu.
"We are trying to get on top of it ... Culling takes place only in farms where the virus has been confirmed," said Junaidu Maina, acting director of the livestock department at the federal Agriculture Ministry in the capital Abuja.
Bird flu experts say culling should take place as early as possible in order to be effective.
"One of our major problems is the issue of protective clothing. What we are using now is what is designed for pest control so you can see our predicament," said Maina.
He said he hoped to receive protective equipment from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation over the weekend.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation said it was sending a team of 7 or 8 experts to Nigeria to try to stop human cases.
Victims contract the virus through direct contact with infected birds, but there are fears it could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person. If it does, it could spark a global human flu pandemic in which millions could die.
(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon in Abuja)

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/news...LU-NIGERIA.xml

[Susan]

Nigerians handle dead poultry unaware of bird flu

Fri Feb 10, 2006 4:44 PM GMT



By Daniel Flynn
HAWAN DAWAKI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian poultry farm workers used their bare hands to throw dead chickens onto fires as village children stood by to watch in an area where the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been found.
Villagers said their domestic poultry were dying too, reinforcing suspicions that bird flu may be present not only in large commercial farms but also in people's backyards in Africa's most populous country.
At a farm near Hawan Dawaki village in the northern state of Kano, where two farms have confirmed cases of H5N1, workers in normal clothes and sandals carried handfuls of dead and dying chickens to a field to burn them.
"We are working on this farm without taking care of our health, but what else can we do? We are calling on the government to come and help us," said Alhaj Danliti, the manager of the farm, which is a stone's throw away from the village.
He said the farm had lost 10,000 chickens, almost its entire stock, and he did not know the nature of their disease. Several chickens collapsed and died with a yellow liquid leaking from their beaks.
In Hawan Dawaki, village elder Muhammadu Musa said he and his neighbour had lost about 150 chickens in recent weeks.
"Both the big ones and the newborn ones are dying. When they die we take them and throw them away. We don't eat them," he said.
In Nigeria, like much of sub-Saharan Africa, most poultry is bought and sold live and slaughtered at home.
Chickens run free in the countryside but also in cities, and public transport is usually full of people carrying poultry in their arms or in baskets.
FEARS FOR HUMANS
The outbreak of H5N1, confirmed in Kano and two other Nigerian states, is the first known appearance in Africa of the virus, which has killed at least 88 people mostly in Asia.
Nigeria has reported no human casualties, but it would be hard for authorities to know because health services are almost non-existent, mortality rates are among the highest in the world and people are often buried without a medical check.
The government has ordered suspect birds culled and suspect farms quarantined, but there was little evidence of any concrete measures in the worst affected areas.
On five poultry farms in Kano state, Reuters found no official checks had been carried out on the birds' health and no measures were in place to restrict the movement of poultry. Workers appeared bewildered by questions about bird flu.
"We are trying to get on top of it ... Culling takes place only in farms where the virus has been confirmed," said Junaidu Maina, acting director of the livestock department at the federal Agriculture Ministry in the capital Abuja.
Bird flu experts say culling should take place as early as possible in order to be effective.
"One of our major problems is the issue of protective clothing. What we are using now is what is designed for pest control so you can see our predicament," said Maina.
He said he hoped to receive protective equipment from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation over the weekend.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation said it was sending a team of 7 or 8 experts to Nigeria to try to stop human cases.
Victims contract the virus through direct contact with infected birds, but there are fears it could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person. If it does, it could spark a global human flu pandemic in which millions could die.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/news...LU-NIGERIA.xml

[HenryN]

Bird Flu Suspected in Lagos

Bird Flu Suspected in Lagos

Daily Trust (Abuja)

http://allafrica.com/stories/printab...602100342.html

NEWS
February 10, 2006 </B>
Posted to the web February 10, 2006

By Olumide Bajulaiye


An outbreak of the dreaded Avian bird influenza, popularly called bird flu, might have hit the Lagos metropolis with some chicken traders reporting that some of their chickens have died mysteriously.
The federal government, on Wednesday announced the outbreak of the deadly disease at Sambawa Farms in Jaji Village, Kaduna State.
Our correspondent who visited some markets in the state and spoke with traders, revealed that their chickens have been dying mysteriously.
A trader who spoke to our correspondent at the Ogba retail market, said she discovered that three of her chickens died without any cause.
Two other traders in the market told our correspondent that there have been mysterious deaths of their chickens in the last two weeks and there has not been any reason for this.
Investigations revealed that no fewer than 200 birds have so far died in Lagos state markets in the last few days with the highest recorded only last Monday where about 70 birds were reported to have died in Ojuwoye market in Mushin area of the state.
Daily Trust learnt that the traders might have decided not to make any official report because of fears that their wares may be seized by officials of the state's ministry of health.
Efforts to speak with the state's Commissioner for Health, Dr. Leke Pitan, proved abortive as he was said to have travelled out of the country.
Meanwhile, residents of the state have spoken of their intention to stop eating chicken and eggs for now until the danger posed by the announcement of the dreaded bird flu in the country clears.
A housewife, Nimota said with the confirmed outbreak of the disease, she must change the regular food timetable of her household until further notice.
Investigations in major markets in the state revealed that the elites who are the major patrons of the chicken delicacy have completely boycotted the product for fear of contracting the bird flu disease.
Reacting to the spread of the disease, Lagos State House of Assembly has urged the federal government to step up efforts to combat the spread of the bird flu disease to other sates of the country, especially Lagos.
The resolution of the House follows the adoption of the motion moved by Mr. Musliu Folami (Ibeju Lekki II) asking the federal government to ensure the safety of chickens and fowls imported into the country before they get to various homes.
Members who spoke on the matter, agreed that bird flu is a deadly disease that must not be allowed to spread.
International experts arrived in three Nigerian states hit by the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus yesterday as authorities tried to persuade people to avoid contact with sick birds.
Thousands of chickens have died in northern Nigeria over the past few weeks and the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health confirmed on Wednesday that the deadly H5N1 strain has arrived Africa for the first time.
"(U.N.) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), inspectors are already in Kaduna, Kano and Jos," said an official of the World Health Organization in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
"They want to trace people who have had contacts with sick chickens and send out simple messages that there should be no human-bird contact," she added.
Meanwhile, NEMA in a press statement signed by its information officer, Malam Ibrahim Farinloye advised Nigerians not to panic over the recent outbreak of bird flu in Zaria and Jaji in Kaduna State, pointing out that the risk to humans is oaw.
He explained that there is no single incident of human infection in the country so far adding that, "eating well cooked poultry meat has never been reported to pose any danger to humans and as such, there is no cause for alarm."
Ibrahim who said NEMA and military officials supervised the destruction of the birds at Sambawa Farms and its closure, said symptoms that could occur in infected persons include fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches, eye infestions, pneumonia and acute respiratory distress.
Sambawa farms officially under quarantine is now a no-go area for the public and the farm officials until further notice. All the international and local media that thronged the farm yesterday were met by armed military and police personnel who politely turned them away.
<!-- end story layout piece here --><!-- ad -->

[HenryN]

Re: WHO: Avian influenza in Africa

Map Update

http://www.recombinomics.com/H5N1_Map_2006_AfricaF.html

[viamede]

Nigerian bird flu virus is same as those found in Turkey, Europe, China

Nigerian bird flu virus is same as those found in Turkey, Europe, China (AFX UK Focus) 2006-02-10 18:00 GMT:
PARIS (AFX) - The strain of bird flu found in Nigerian poultry is the same virus previously detected in Turkey, Europe and China, which suggests it was brought to West Africa by migrant birds, an expert with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said here.
"The new isolate was compared to four isolates from Turkey, two from China and two from Croatia," said Alex Thiermann, special advisor to the director-general of the OIE.
"The homology varies from 99.4 to 100 per cent, which means that we are dealing with exactly the same strains as the previous ones," he said. "It has come from these countries and it is very, very unlikely that it has come through trade, and very likely that it has been through migratory birds," he said. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/cml



http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxn...action=article

[GaudiaRay]

Re: Nigerian bird flu virus is same as those found in Turkey, Europe, China

viamede Nigerian bird flu virus is same as those found in Turkey, Europe, China (AFX UK Focus) 2006-02-10 18:00 GMT:
PARIS (AFX) - The strain of bird flu found in Nigerian poultry is the same virus previously detected in Turkey, Europe and China, which suggests it was brought to West Africa by migrant birds, an expert with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said here.
"The new isolate was compared to four isolates from Turkey, two from China and two from Croatia," said Alex Thiermann, special advisor to the director-general of the OIE.
"The homology varies from 99.4 to 100 per cent, which means that we are dealing with exactly the same strains as the previous ones," he said. "It has come from these countries and it is very, very unlikely that it has come through trade, and very likely that it has been through migratory birds," he said. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/cml



Hans Stohr is checking with John Oxford to design a series of probative tests to see what make and model of car is responsible for driving down there, because that can be traced back to the chicken vendor/smuggler who brought into Nigeria this terrible disease.

This is such old news that it's painful to see it being restated, yet again, as if it were de novo. Get it? Alex is a special advisor. He is honest. He is totally out of touch with historical reality. We can expect him to say the same thing when the virus appears in W Europe and E North America. We might as well say it for him now. All together now....

[viamede]

Another Nigerian state closes farm following suspected bird flu

Another Nigerian state closes farm following suspected bird fluwww.chinaview.cn 2006-02-11 03:56:54
LAGOS, Feb. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- The northern Nigerian state of Katsina has closed a farm following a suspected outbreak of bird flu, the state commissioner for agriculture, Alhaji Ali Dutsin-Ma,said on Friday.
More than 1,100 chickens have been killed and buried to avoid the spread of the disease at the Nasiha poultry farm in the state capital Katsina, Dutsin-Ma told a news conference in Katsina.
Previously, four farms in the northern states of Kano and Kaduna, and the central state of Plateau, have been closed after the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was found there early this week.
Dutsin-Ma said the area where the affected farm was located had also disinfected.
He also stated that samples collected at the farm had already been sent to National Veterinary Institute at Vom near Plateau state capital Jos for analysis.
Dutsin-ma said a massive enlightenment campaign on the disease would be mounted in the state so as to ensure that the problem did not spread to other areas. Enditem
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4163760.htm

[HenryN]

Another Nigerian state closes farm following suspected bird flu

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width="98%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=bbb1 vAlign=center align=middle height=27>http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4163760.htm
Another Nigerian state closes farm following suspected bird flu
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="98%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle bgColor=#333333 height=1></TD></TR><TR><TD class=g10 align=middle height=21>www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-11 03:56:54</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE class=txt_zw cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="98%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> LAGOS, Feb. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- The northern Nigerian state of Katsina has closed a farm following a suspected outbreak of bird flu, the state commissioner for agriculture, Alhaji Ali Dutsin-Ma,said on Friday.
More than 1,100 chickens have been killed and buried to avoid the spread of the disease at the Nasiha poultry farm in the state capital Katsina, Dutsin-Ma told a news conference in Katsina.
Previously, four farms in the northern states of Kano and Kaduna, and the central state of Plateau, have been closed after the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was found there early this week.
Dutsin-Ma said the area where the affected farm was located had also disinfected.
He also stated that samples collected at the farm had already been sent to National Veterinary Institute at Vom near Plateau state capital Jos for analysis.
Dutsin-ma said a massive enlightenment campaign on the disease would be mounted in the state so as to ensure that the problem did not spread to other areas. Enditem
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>