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Deadly Bird Flu Detected in Nigerian Outbreak

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 February 2006, 06:50 CST

By Estelle Shirbon

ABUJA -- An outbreak of bird flu among poultry in Nigeria is the H5N1 strain that can kill people, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said in a statement on Wednesday, the first time the virus has been found in Africa.

The OIE said it had detected a highly pathogenic form of H5N1 after testing at a laboratory in the Italian city of Padua. Suspicions about bird flu were raised after the deaths of thousands of birds in northern Nigeria in recent days.

Further tests were being carried out to establish how similar it was to currently known H5N1 strains, added the statement from the Paris-based OIE.

An outbreak could have devastating consequences in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, where millions of people have chickens in their backyards.

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu had not previously been detected in Africa, though other strains have.

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.

The Nigerian authorities have taken preventive measures including culling, quarantine, controls on animal movement and disinfection of infected premises.

The outbreak affected birds in battery cages in Jaji village in Kaduna state in the north of the country, the OIE said.

In Kano city, capital of neighboring Kano state where most of the poultry have died, traders in the market were trying to sell chicken at less than half the normal price as news spread of the unexplained poultry deaths.

Human mortality rates in Nigeria are among the highest in the world and people are often buried without any formal medical check, making it extremely difficult to know whether any new disease has appeared.

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.

Salihu Jibrin, head of veterinary services at the state's Agriculture Ministry, said teams had been sent to various parts of the state to try and determine how many poultry were dying and what farmers were doing in response. He said the state had issued no statistics so far on the outbreak.

(additional reporting by Silvia Aloisi in Rome and Mike Oboh in Kano)

Source: REUTERS

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