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  • Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

    <!-- end storyhdr --> LOME, Togo - An outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed in the West African nation of Togo for the first time since last year, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.The virus was detected at a poultry farm housing more than 4,500 birds in the village of Agbata outside the capital, Lome, said a ministry statement read over state television. It was not known how many birds died, but more than 80 per cent of those infected by the flu were fatalities, the ministry said.
    The statement did not say whether the birds were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, which has scientists concerned because it has the potential to infect humans. At least 235 people have died of bird flu worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
    Most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds, but health experts worry the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, sparking a pandemic that some say could kill millions of people and overload health care systems.
    The Health Ministry banned the sale of all chicken and poultry products in the region around the farm.



  • #2
    Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

    Updated map

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    • #3
      Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

      Source: http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN042265.html

      Togo quarantines village in suspected bird flu case
      Wed 10 Sep 2008, 10:44 GMT

      LOME (Reuters) - Togo has imposed a quarantine on a southern village after a suspected outbreak of bird flu killed nearly 4,000 poultry in the small West African state, the government said on Wednesday.

      The government's website said the sudden death of the birds at Gbata near Avepozo in the coastal Lacs prefecture indicated a possible outbreak of bird flu.

      Samples from the dead chickens were being sent to laboratories in Ghana and Italy to test for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the disease, the website added.


      Togo, one of a string of West African countries to be hit by outbreaks of bird flu over the past two years, reported several cases last year of H5N1 avian influenza among poultry.

      Togo's Agriculture and Livestock Ministry had reinforced an existing ban on the import of poultry and also tightened controls on ports, markets and frontiers with neighbours Ghana, Benin and Burkina Faso, the website said.

      The H5N1 strain, which has swept through bird populations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, only rarely affects people but has killed 243 out of 385 people infected globally so far, according to the World Health Organisation.

      People can catch the virus from close contact with infected birds or by eating their meat if not properly prepared, but scientists fear the virus could mutate and jump between humans, threatening a much more deadly flu pandemic.

      Outbreaks in Africa have raised alarm bells because epidemiologists fear the continent's widespread poverty, lack of proper veterinary and medical facilities and huge informal farming sector could allow outbreaks to go unnoticed longer, increasing the risk of the virus mutating.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

        Commentary

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

          Source: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80309

          TOGO: Officials to slaughter more poultry to fight bird flu spread

          LOME, 11 September 2008 (IRIN) - Officials have quarantined Agbata village in southern Togo, and plan to cull all poultry within a three kilometre radius, as they await lab confirmation of which avian flu virus killed 3,000 birds there on 09 September.

          Authorities have already slaughtered about 1,500 birds that survived this week's bird flu epidemic in three poultry farms in Agbata, 10 km from the capital, Lome.

          Togo?s government is awaiting lab confirmation to learn if it was the H5N1 virus, which was first discovered in Togo in June 2007.


          The country?s livestock director, Komla Batasse Batawui, told IRIN that officials reacted as quickly as possible and are prepared to do more. ?We deplore the fact that these farms lost 80 percent of their poultry. Seven rapid flu tests came back positive and we are waiting lab confirmation. Within the next three weeks, we will slaughter birds within three kilometres of this affected village.?

          Batawui said farmers will be compensated for their losses, without specifying how much. The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fish has launched an appeal for international assistance to fight and prevent the spread of bird flu in Togo.


          The West African pandemic advisor for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Liviu Vedrasco, says while compensation schemes are important, it is critical countries put in place good national pandemic response systems.

          Though the virus has been mostly contained to poultry, the World Health Organization has estimated about 200 people worldwide have died from poultry-to-human H5N1 infections in the last five years.

          Some experts say the unpredictable H5N1 virus, or still undiscovered viruses, may mutate and potentially spread among humans.

          ?This most recent outbreak [in Togo] keeps governments alert about the need to have a good human pandemic disaster plan in place [in case of person-to-person H5N1 infections] ? It is important governments do not become complacent and think nothing needs to be done. This does not take money [per se], but rather it involves one government ministry talking to another,? said Vedrasco.

          Several West African countries have reported similar cases of bird flu in poultry, with only Nigeria reporting one human bird flu death, according to the UN.

          mm/pt/aj

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          • #6
            Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

            Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/...o-Bird-Flu.php

            Togo: Recent bird flu outbreak is deadly H5N1

            The Associated Press


            LOME, Togo: Togo state television says lab tests performed after a recent outbreak of bird flu have confirmed the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, which has the potential to infect humans.

            No human cases have been detected so far in Togo, however.

            State media reported Monday the lab tests were carried out by experts in Ghana and Italy after the outbreak was discovered last week among several thousand birds in Agbata outside the capital, Lome.


            The Health Ministry says "precautionary measures have been taken to contain the situation."

            At least 235 people have died of bird flu worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

              OIE, IMMEDIATE NOTIFICATION REPORT, HPAI H5N1 IN POULTRY, TOGO

              [In this post: (1) OIE, Immediate Notification Report, HPAI H5N1 in poultry, Togo. See original texts at the source site. EDITED.]
              ----------
              -

              (1) [AVIAN INFLUENZA, POULTRY, TOGO, OIE, UPDATES] Highly pathogenic avian influenza, Togo

              Information received on 18/09/2008 from Dr Batawui Komla Batasse, Directeur de l'?levage et de la p?che, -, Minist?re de l'Agriculture de l'Elevage et de la P?che , Lom?, Togo

              ? Summary

              Report type Immediate notification
              Start date 09/09/2008
              Date of first confirmation of the event 16/09/2008
              Report date 18/09/2008
              Date submitted to OIE 18/09/2008
              Reason for notification Reoccurrence of a listed disease
              Date of previous occurrence 31/12/2007
              Causal agent Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus Serotype H5N1
              Nature of diagnosis Clinical, Laboratory (advanced)
              This event pertains to the whole country

              ? New outbreaks

              Summary of outbreaks Total outbreaks: 1

              * Outbreak Location and Affected population - R?GION MARITIME (Agata-Dague) : three modern farms

              Total animals affected: Species - Susceptible - Cases - Deaths - Destroyed - Slaughtered
              * Birds - 6500 - 4131 - 4131 - 2369

              Outbreak statistics: Species - Apparent morbidity rate - Apparent mortality rate - Apparent case fatality rate - Proportion susceptible animals lost*
              * Birds - 63.55% - 63.55% - 100.00% - **

              * Removed from the susceptible population through death, destruction and/or slaughter
              ** Not calculated because of missing information

              ? Epidemiology
              Source of the outbreak(s) or origin of infection Unknown or inconclusive

              ? Control measures
              Measures applied Stamping out
              Quarantine
              Disinfection of infected premises/establishment(s)
              Vaccination prohibited
              No treatment of affected animals

              Measures to be applied No other measures

              ? Diagnostic test results
              Laboratory name and type Laboratoire v?t?rinaire d'Accra (Ghana) (National laboratory)
              Tests and results: Species - Test - Test date - Result
              * Birds - reverse transcription ? polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) - 16/09/2008 - Positive

              Laboratory name and type Padoue (Italie) (OIE?s Reference Laboratory)
              Tests and results: Species - Test - Test date - Result
              * Birds - virus sequencing - 18/09/2008 - Positive

              ? Future Reporting
              The event is continuing. Weekly follow-up reports will be submitted.

              -
              -------

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

                IRIN Africa - TOGO: Poultry farmers and businesses have mixed reactions to H5N1 flu confirmation
                TOGO: Poultry farmers and businesses have mixed reactions to H5N1 flu confirmation

                LOME, 18 September 2008 (IRIN) -

                Togo?s government has confirmed the H5N1 bird flu virus is responsible for the 10 September outbreak that killed 3,500 birds and led to the culling of an additional 1,500 others on three farms in Agbata, about 10km east of the capital.


                Since its reappearance in 2003, the highly contagious virus has led to the death of millions of poultry, as well as about 200 people who were infected with the virus by sick birds, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

                Mixed reactions
                IRIN traveled a dozen kilometres outside Lome to Agbata to meet with poultry farmers on 17 September, one day after the government announced its lab confirmation.

                Antoine Megbeto told IRIN he is not worried because officials have killed any remaining birds that might have been infected. Immediately following the outbreak, the country?s livestock director, Komla Batasse Batawui, told IRIN that officials had culled the surviving birds on all three farms with sick birds.

                ?We are not scared,? said Megbeto, ?We received training starting one year ago [after the country?s first H5N1 outbreak] on how to prevent the virus from spreading. Which is why as soon as I discovered the gruesome and sudden poultry deaths on my farm, I quickly alerted authorities.?

                But another farmer who gave his name as Alphonse is less at ease, ?I am scared for my family?s health. A team of doctors come around every morning to reassure us everything is well. But my family and I are nevertheless scared to eat poultry, even if they tell us that it is safe as long as it is well-cooked.?

                The government has promised compensation to farmers who lost birds; the farmers say no one has told them how much they will receive or by when.

                Profits plummet with poultry ban
                Shortly after the country?s first H5N1 outbreak in June 2007, the government, like many of its West African neighbours, banned poultry imports from countries with confirmed cases of bird flu.

                But despite the ban being in place for about one year, there is still an underground market of illegal poultry imports from countries on Togo?s banned list, according to local consumers.

                The first bird flu cases in Togo were discovered on a farm that had received a shipment of birds from Ghana, months before Ghana?s government announced a bird flu outbreak and an export ban in May 2007.

                Poultry vendor and importer, Fiacre Lodonou, told IRIN his profits have slowly sunk over the past year because of the more stringent rules that have cut off his cheapest supply of poultry.

                ?We only started business 15 years ago. Now, because of this [H5N1] virus, my sales have plummeted by more than 70 percent. I cannot even afford to order new birds now.?

                The businessman says he fears the flu will not kill only birds, but also his business.
                <cite cite="http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80470">IRIN Africa | West Africa | Togo | TOGO: Poultry farmers and businesses have mixed reactions to H5N1 flu confirmation | Avian Flu | News Item</cite>

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

                  Commentary

                  Spread of Uvs Lake H5N1 to Togo
                  Recombinomics Commentary 14:27
                  September 10, 2008


                  An outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed in the West African nation of Togo for the first time since last year, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. The virus was detected at a poultry farm housing more than 4,500 birds in the village of Agbata outside the capital, Lome, said a ministry statement read over state television. It was not known how many birds died, but more than 80 per cent of those infected by the flu were fatalities, the ministry said.

                  The above comments describe a likely H5N1 outbreak in Togo (see satellite map). The spread of H5N1 from Nigeria to Benin to Togo is not unexpected. This scenario is similar to the outbreak of the Uvs Lake strain of H5N1 in Europe a year earlier. Like western Africa, there had been little H5N1 earlier in the year, which was followed by a summer outbreak of H5N1. These types of outbreaks signal endemic H5N1 that is missed by surveillance systems.

                  This summer Nigeria reported H5N1 at multiple locations in the north. The Uvs Lake strain of H5N1 had not been reported in Africa previously. The clade 2.2.3 strain arose from a wild bird outbreak at Uvs Lake in Mongolia in the summer of 2006. It migrated to the east and was involved in outbreaks in South Korea and Japan in late 2006. The migration to the west led to outbreaks in Kuwait in early 2007.

                  In the summer of 2007, H5N1 was reported in the Czech Republic, Germany, and France. In the fall, the Uvs Lake strain became dominant in Europe. In 2008, the same sequence of events is happening in west Africa, with H5N1 outbreaks in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo.


                  .
                  "The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

                    Source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5...zFiUjdj_g2G2FA

                    Poultry cull in Togo capital after bird flu outbreak


                    LOME (AFP) ? Authorities have culled some 5,000 birds over the past two days in the capital of the west African state of Togo following the discovery of bird flu there early this month, an official said Saturday.

                    The poultry was killed and incinerated in Agbata, a Lome suburb where this most recent outbreak occurred, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries told AFP.


                    An AFP journalist saw hundreds of villagers converging on an Agbata square to hand in their poultry to veterinarians for destruction.

                    Other officials moved door-to-door seizing any live poultry and killed them on the spot. Affected farmers were immediately compensated.

                    Officials say that, in all, more than 16,000 birds have to be destroyed and hundreds of houses disinfected.

                    The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was confirmed for the first time in the west African nation in June last year.

                    No human infections have yet been reported in the country.

                    The World Health Organization (WHO) says 243 people have died from bird flu worldwide since 2003, the vast majority of them in Asia.

                    The H5N1 bird flu virus mainly kills animals but scientists fear it could mutate into a disease that is easily transferrable from human to human and spark a global pandemic.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

                      Bird Flu

                      Health officials from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and European Union (EU) cull chickens in Agbata, 20km west of Lome, where new cases of bird flu have been confirmed, September 26, 2008.

                      Laboratory tests have confirmed a fresh outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in Togo after around 4,000 poultry died at a village in the small West African state last week, the government said on Wednesday.

                      Tests conducted in Ghana on samples from dead chickens taken from the village of Agbata, on the eastern fringes of the capital Lome, showed the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.

                      Picture taken September 26, 2008.
                      REUTERS/Noel Kokou Tadegnon (TOGO)

                      Click image for larger version

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                      ?Addressing chronic disease is an issue of human rights ? that must be our call to arms"
                      Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief The Lancet

                      ~~~~ Twitter:@GertvanderHoek ~~~ GertvanderHoek@gmail.com ~~~

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                      • #12
                        Re: Togo says bird flu hits poultry farm

                        Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/news...ac371951f0.htm


                        TOGO: 17,000 poultry killed in latest flu outbreak
                        30 Sep 2008 18:38:34 GMT
                        Source: IRIN

                        Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

                        LOME, 30 September 2008 (IRIN) - Some 17,000 birds died or have been culled since the outbreak of the H5N1 avian flu virus on 9 September on three poultry farms in Agbata, located 10km east of Lome, according to the country's livestock director, Komla Batawui.
                        Zero tolerance

                        The UN Food and Agricultural Organization adviser to the government, Jacques Conforti, says the risk has been contained. "We focused on free-range poultry, and did not cull poultry in coops in the areas surrounding Agbata. This [the culling] should reduce the risk of the virus spreading to zero."


                        Conforti says the disinfection has moved along quickly in the past three weeks, "We do not want to lose any time. We try to disinfect a zone in less than 24 hours before moving to the next at-risk area." He says officials meet with farmers who point out any sick birds, cull the birds, and pay the farmers for the value of the bird, eggs or bird feed that is destroyed.

                        Officials have paid close to US$9,000 so far to farmers to compensate them for their losses since the latest outbreak.


                        Togo's Minister of Agriculture, Kossi Messan Ewovor, told IRIN this money helps the farmers step forward with their suspicions about sick birds that may carry the deadly H5N1 virus. "This is to assure the poultry farmers they have nothing to lose, and everything to gain in culling sick birds because they help keep their regions and the entire country safe."

                        Alphonse Tognizoun, a poultry farmer in Agbata, told IRIN he lost more than 1,000 birds as well as some poultry feed. "I got US$4 per bird and half the value of the food for my birds that was also destroyed, or about 33 US cents per kilo. I didn't lose eggs, but others who did were paid 6 US cents per egg."

                        Following the country's first outbreak of the virus in August 2007, the World Bank had pushed for farmer payments to encourage quick and accurate reporting, but had also cautioned officials about the difficulty of creating a fair and transparent payment programme to prevent fraudulent poultry claims.

                        Olga Jonas, the World Bank adviser who coordinates donor avian flu funding, had said payment schemes can be difficult to carry out because it can be hard to prove ownership for small producers in remote areas who live in the bush, far from their chicken coops.

                        But Togo's livestock director, Batawui, said there was no room for bird fraud, "If we are not the ones who cull and incinerate the birds ourselves, the farmers must bring us their dead poultry. We register it and give them a receipt with their payment. No cheaters this way."


                        Following the last avian flu outbreak, Togolese officials requested international donor assistance; the US$500,000 requested has just now arrived from European Union, African Union, African Development Bank, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and World Bank. Half of this money will go toward interventions at the farm-level, such as disinfecting farms, culling, and incinerating birds, while the other half is to be spent on training and equipment to help officials respond to and contain the spread.

                        The World Health Organization estimates the H5N1 virus has killed or led to the destruction of 150 million birds and the deaths of about 200 people worldwide since 2003.

                        mm/pt/aj

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