Niko
Editor, Senior Moderator
Bird flu resurfaces in Kano
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By Our correspondent
Published: Tuesday, 23 Jan 2007
An outbreak of the deadly N5H1 strain of bird flu has resurfaced among poultry in Kano, veterinary officials said on Monday.
Bird flu outbreaks have been confirmed in at least seven poultry farms in the city in the last two months, Shehu Bawa, the head of Kano State?s avian flu committee told a press workshop.
He added that 10,000 birds had been culled so far.
At a briefing organised by United States Centres for Disease Control, Bawa said, ?We now have a resurgence of avian influenza in Kano.?
?We have identified seven poultry farms that have been infected with the disease and laboratory tests on all the samples from these farms have confirmed positive.?
?A total of 10,000 chickens on all the affected farms have been depopulated and we are currently conducting investigations on an eigth farm whose chickens have shown some signs of an ailment suspected to be avian flu.?
Two other northern states, Katsina and Sokoto, recorded outbreaks of a disease suspected to be avian influenza early this month but laboratory tests were still being conducted at the National Veterinary Research Institute in central city of Jos for confirmation.
Kano was the worst affected by the bird flu outbreak since the disease was first detected on a farm in Jaji outside the neighbouring city of Kaduna in February 2006.
The flu outbreak ravaged 97 farms in Kano, resulting in the death or culling of over 300,000 birds.
Bawa said, ?From all indications, avian influenza has come to stay in Nigeria unless something urgent and drastic is done about it.?
He blamed migratory birds from Europe for the outbreak of the disease in Nigeria, adding that as long as the movement of these birds was not checked, there would be a recurrence every year, although improved bio-security measures by farmers could help in minimising its spread.
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