Bird Flu Reaches Africa, Kills Nigerian Poultry

By Mike Oboh

KANO, Nigeria — The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has spread to Africa for the first time where it has killed poultry in northern Nigeria, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said on Wednesday.

The U.N. body said it had detected a highly pathogenic form of H5N1 after testing at a laboratory in the Italian city of Padua. Suspicions about the virus were raised after the deaths of thousands of birds in Africa’s most populous country.

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. Cases of human infection are relatively few compared with the millions of birds that have contracted the disease.

The outbreak could have devastating consequences in Nigeria, where millions keep chickens in their backyards.

It would be difficult for authorities to know whether any person has been infected with the virus as mortality rates in impoverished Nigeria are among the highest in the world and people are often buried without any formal medical check.

Agriculture Minister Adamu Bello said authorities would kill all chickens suspected to be infected with bird flu and quarantine all suspect farms. He said the government would budget between 1.7 to 2.0 billion naira ($13-$15.5 million) for compensation for culled birds.

"The outbreak affected a commercial…unit kept in battery cages, in Kaduna state (Jaji village), in the northern part of the country," the OIE said.

Juan Lubroth, senior officer for infectious diseases with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said the genetic composition of the virus found in Nigeria was similar to the strain detected in Asia and Turkey.

"The fact that the virus is able to spread very rapidly is of great concern," he said. A team of international experts will travel to Nigeria to provide advice to the local authorities.

Bello blamed illegal imports for the outbreak.

HALF-PRICE CHICKENS

Migratory birds have been blamed for the spread of the virus westwards from Asia, but it is not clear how it reached West Africa after showing up most recently in eastern Europe, Iraq and Turkey.

Experts agreed it was important to act quickly to try to contain the virus.

"What is most important now is not how it got into Nigeria but how it can be prevented from leaving Nigeria," said Associate Professor Phil Hockey, ornithologist at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology in Cape Town.

"The prospect of bird flu loose in sub-Saharan Africa is a scary one because of the way that human and domestic bird populations are so closely intermingled," he told Reuters.

Thousands of bird deaths have also been reported in Kano state, which borders Kaduna. The federal ministries of health and agriculture have not provided information on how many birds have died or in which areas exactly.

In Kano city, poultry farmers were trying to sell chickens at less than half the normal price, including from farms where birds have been dying.

"I am confused. I lost 10 birds yesterday on my little farm and I cannot afford to lose more, so I came to the market to dispose of many of my birds at these ridiculous prices," said Ismail Musa.

He was sitting in a crowded Kano market with 10 baskets that each contained about 20 birds.

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.

(additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon, Tom Ashby and Felix Onuah in Abuja, Silvia Aloisi in Rome, Ed Stoddard in Johannesburg)