Zambia investigates death of wild birds [or chickens - and testing chickens' owners]

[Jeremy]

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=117&art_id=qw1150803003786B251

Zambia investigates death of wild birds

Lusaka - Zambian veterinary and health authorities on Tuesday confirmed the launch of an investigation into the possible presence of bird flu in the country after the discovery of over 40 dead wild birds in the southern tourist capital Livingstone.

Zambia has had no reported cases of the avian influenza virus in wild or domesticated poultry and this is the country's first incident in which dozens of birds have been found dead in unknown circumstances.

Livingstone district chief veterinary officer Jack Shoko said the dead birds were collected near the country's border with Zimbabwe, and that samples had been dispatched to Lusaka to determine the cause of death.

Shoko who warned the local community against easting the wild birds, saying it was too early to tell if they had died of the H5N1 virus, first detected in Asia and since spread to Europe and some African countries.

</SPAN><!--pull quote --><TABLE cellSpacing=6 cellPadding=0 width=130 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=pullquote>Major tourist destination</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--pull quote end -->The virus causes death among poultry and humans.

Livingstone is Zambia's major tourist destination and a key export route linking south-central and east-central Africa.

In March this year the government banned the importation of all poultry and poultry products and the movement of live birds as a preventive measure to cut the risk of bird flu outbreak.

The movement of poultry and frozen poultry products within the country was restricted to the permission of health and veterinary authorities.

United Nations agencies had advised African governments to suspend trade in poultry to prevent the spread of the virus following an outbreak in the West African nation of Nigeria. - Sapa-dpa

 

[Sharpe]

Re: Zambia investigates death of wild birds

Re: Zambia investigates death of wild birds

It is worth pointing out what else is going on in Zambia at the current time to put these dead wild birds in perspective. First of all, the country almost every 5 days reiterates that bird flu is not in the country and that the public is being tricked. On May 21st, the DRC banned poultry from Zambia saying that bird flu was in the copper belt area of northcentral Zambia. Additionally animals in very large numbers have been dying continuously since December of last year throughout the area, often with fever, pneumonia, and diarrhea. Finally, today we have a report about refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia arriving in the northeastern city of Nakonde. They apparently have fever and diarrhea and are very sick. I do not think that they have bird flu, mind you, though I am concerned. Both countries border Djibouti, a tiny country that happened to find a girl with bird flu a month ago, and the odds that this tiny country has it but they don't are pretty low. The fact that thousands of pigeons and chickens have been dying in Ethiopia for months is also not very promising. Additionally, a LOT of children in southern Somalia are dying with diarrhea (which is a classic presentation of H5N1). It's also classic for tons of other diseases, so we cannot draw any conclusions, but it is nevertheless something to watch.

June 20, 2006, 2 hours, 3 minutes and 25 seconds ago.

By ANDnetwork .com

An outbreak of watery diarrhoea in Afmadow District in southwestern Somalia has claimed the lives of at least 20 children during the past 10 days, medical sources said on Monday.


"At least 20 children under the age of five have died in the last 10 days of watery diarrhoea," said Hassan Mursal, a clinical officer of Afmadow District Hospital. Some 50 people were arriving at the facility to seek treatment for diarrhoea every day, he said.

Mursal blamed the outbreak on contaminated water drawn from wells in the area. "We suspect the problem is the water people are drinking, but unfortunately we don't have chlorine to treat the wells. There is little we can do, because we are running out of ORS [oral rehydration salts] and the small children need IVs, which we don't have," he said.

The highest one-day fatality rate was "on 11 June, when nine people - six of them children - died," he said. "I suspect the number [of fatalities] is much higher, because many people don't make it to the hospital and are buried immediately," said Mursal, who appealed for medicines and water-purification kits.

"If they do not come soon, many more people will die," he said.

Source : IRIN News



Refugees flood Nakonde
About 37 more refugees from Ethiopia and Somalia have arrived in Nakonde.

This brings the number of refugees from these two countries who have arrived in the area in the last 11 days, to 89.

There are now 307 refuges in the district.

District Commissioiner Edwin Sinyinza who confirmed the development to ZANIS, said the refugee situation is serious and in need of urgent attention.

Mr. Sinyinza said the refugees were currently feeding on porridge because there is no food.

"37 more refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia arrived at Chanka Rural Health Centre in Nakonde, using the same route through Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi used by the other batch of 52 refugees who arrived 11 days ago" he said.

All the refugees are male aged between 20 and 32 years old.

Mr. Sinyinza said among the latest arrivals, not everybody is in a good health, although health personnel at Chanka are yet to screen them.

He said others appear to be sick and three have since been admitted at the local clinic with suspected malaria and diarrhea.

Mr. Sinyinza said hunger has also rocked the temporal refugee camp at Chanka as the local people have now stopped donating various food stuffs to the refugees due to the ever-increasing number.

Mr. Sinyinza said the District Administration has no capacity to take care of the refugees who are now posing a risk to social and household food security in the area.

Mr. Sinyinza has also suggested that security personnel be deployed along the Zambia, Malawi border in Nakonde east to stop the flow of refugees into Zambia.

One of the refugees, Mustafa Yusulf, 20, said at Chanka camp, that he was running away from the civil war back home.

"All of us, refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia are running away from civil wars.

In Tanzania and Malawi where we briefly stayed before coming into Zambia, we were informed that we could not be allowed to stay in those countries as all the refugee camp were full," Yusulf said.

 

[Jeremy]

Re: Zambia investigates death of wild birds

Re: Zambia investigates death of wild birds

http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/southern_africa/0,2172,129715,00.html

June 20, 2006, 20:00

Zambia is testing residents in the tourist resort city of Livingstone for bird flu after chickens were found dead in their owners' backyards, a health official said.

"We are investigating the matter but so far there has been no confirmation of an outbreak," Simon Miti, the permanent secretary at the health ministry, said.

It was not clear how many chickens had died, but Miti said several residents had been sent to hospital for tests after they cooked and ate the dead birds.

A health official in Livingstone, 480km south of the capital Lusaka, said some of the birds had been sent to South Africa for testing. - Reuters

 

[Theresa42]

Suspect death of more than 40 birds in Zambia

Suspect death of more than 40 birds in Zambia

babelfished from French:

Le mardi 20 juin 2006
Suspect death of more than 40 birds in Zambia

Agence France-Press
Lusaka

The Zambian authorities launched an investigation to determine if the aviary flu virus were at the origin of the suspect death of more than 40 wild birds in the south of the country, according to an official official statement published Tuesday.

The carcasses were discovered these the last two days with Livingstone, indicated Jack Shoko, veterinary surgeon as a chief of this tourist city located at ten kilometers of the Victoria falls, on the Zambezi.

"Of the taking away were sent to Lusaka for tests. We await the results of the laboratory", it explained.

No detail was provided on the species of died found birds, nor the duration of tests.

The director of Health, Gardner Syakantu, invited the inhabitants of Livingstone "not to touch these birds, and not to eat them".

No case of aviary influenza has until now summer listed in the country.

In March, Zambia had prohibited any transport of animals as well as the poultry imports in order to avoid the entry on its territory of mortal virus H5N1 of the aviary influenza.

Hearths of the virus were declared since February in eight African countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Egypt, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan). Human cases for the moment were announced in Egypt and to Djibouti.

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20060620/CPMONDE/606201416/5668/CPMONDE

 

[Theresa42]

Neighboring Zimbabwe says no bf in Victoria Falls [Zimbabwe] or Livingstone, Zambia

Neighboring Zimbabwe says no bf in Victoria Falls [Zimbabwe] or Livingstone, Zambia

No bird flu in Victoria Falls: official
9/7/2006 9:42

Zimbabwe's Department of Veterinary Services has allayed fears of an Avian Influenza outbreak in the resort town of Victoria Falls following the deaths of wild birds in neighboring Livingstone, Zambia.

Speaking at a Matabeleland North Provincial Committee meeting in Bulawayo on Friday, the head of the department in the province Polex Moyo said fears of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus outbreak were "just a scare."

There were reports that poultry producers in Victoria Falls, supermarkets and residents had stopped buying chickens following the deaths of the birds in Livingstone.

More than 40 birds were found dead at the end of last month in the Zambian town, a major nesting area for the migratory birds.

"It was just a scare because after some tests it was proven that they (the Livingstone birds) did not have bird flu. So it's nothing to worry about," Moyo said. [I wonder what the birds did die of....]

He said as a precautionary measure, his department had deployed personnel along Zimbabwe's border with Zambia to monitor the volumes of poultry products moving between the two countries.

http://english.eastday.com/eastday/...node95960/node95962/userobject1ai2165646.html