More bird flu in Nigeria, spreads to new mammal

By Ed Stoddard

PRETORIA (Reuters) – Bird flu in Africa is more likely to
spread through poultry than migrating wild birds, experts said
on Thursday, as the deadly H5N1 form of the virus was found in
more chickens in Nigeria.

In Europe, experts believe migratory birds carrying the
virus are the greater threat to poultry than the poultry trade
itself and governments have ordered poultry to be kept indoors.

Industry officials said that decision was hitting
free-range poultry farmers hard.

Experts said a flourishing informal chicken trade and
porous borders had helped avian flu spread in Nigeria and
Niger, the only sub-Saharan African countries to detect H5N1 so
far.

“They (migratory birds) can participate in the spread of
the disease. But in our case we should be more worried with the
trade of poultry products,” said Dr Bonaventure Mtei, the World
Health Organization for Animal Health (OIE) representative to
the Southern African Development Community.

The U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) said the virus had
now been detected on more than 130 farms in 11 of Nigeria’s 37
states, in both the north and the south.

Although no human cases of the virus have been confirmed in
Africa so far, experts fear it may only be a matter of time
before the disease that has killed 96 people worldwide passes
to people in countries hard-hit by other diseases.

While H5N1 is overwhelmingly an infection in birds, it
occasionally can infect people. The WHO has documented the
virus in 175 people in seven countries. If it acquires the
ability to easily pass from person to person, it could cause a
pandemic that would kill millions in the space of a few months.

“The spread of H5N1 to Africa is cause for great concern
… overall the African continent remains vulnerable,” WHO
director general Dr Lee Jong-wook said, on a visit to Nairobi.

“We do not know, for example, what kind of an impact a
pandemic virus would have on people who are already
immunosuppressed as a result of HIV,” he said. “The impact of
an influenza pandemic on African countries’ already
overburdened health care systems could be extremely grave.”

Where people live closer to fowl, the risk of infection —
usually through close contact with an infected bird — is
higher.

HUMAN TESTS

Most cases of the virus have been in wild birds in Europe
and on Thursday testing continued, with Serbia confirming its
first case of H5N1 in a swan and Norway saying it was testing
two ducks after finding 12 birds dead in the same area.

In further evidence that other animals are able to contract
the virus, Germany said it had found H5N1 in a marten — a
weasel-like animal — just days after finding it in three cats.
The WHO said more research was needed to determine what this
meant for the risk of human infection.

Azerbaijan was sending samples from 11 people, including
three who died, to Britain for bird flu tests, the WHO said.

The Azeris, including eight members from the same family,
are from a village near a southeastern region of the country
where the deadly H5N1 virus has been found among birds.

“There have been three deaths, with symptoms somewhat
similar to H5N1 infection,” WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said.
“Other people are still in hospital, including one who is very
sick.”

Countries continued preventive measures to stop the spread
of the virus among birds. Russia said it would start a mass
vaccination of domestic fowl in the next two days.

Villagers in Albania, which confirmed its first H5N1 case
on Wednesday and which was planning to cull and bury close to
2,000 chickens on Thursday, were finding it difficult to part
with their backyard poultry.

“Let me eat it, I don’t care if I do die,” said one elderly
lady.

(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian,
Aleksandras Budrys, Benet Koleka, Stephanie Nebehay, Terje
Solvik)