Bird flu ‘spreading fast’ in Nigeria

A NIGERIAN official has warned that bird flu was fast spreading in the country, and a UN expert said the strain may have surfaced in a second African country.

The H5N1 strain was first confirmed in Africa last week in fowl on a large commercial farm near Jaji, in Kaduna state.

Since then it has been confirmed in two other northern states in Africa’s most populous country and suspected in five, raising concern Nigeria is not taking the necessary measures to combat the disease.

“We have received reports that the disease is fast spreading to other farms across the state,” said Shehu Bawa, the head of a bird flu committee in Nigeria’s northern Kano state.

In Niger, Nigeria’s northern neighbour, officials are investigating the deaths of two birds.

A team led by Bawa supervised the destruction of thousands of birds on five Nigerian farms.

At a health clinic in Jaji, officials said that checks a day earlier of 20 farm workers had not turned up any signs of the disease. Health workers, who continued their examinations yesterday, were only checking for symptoms as they lacked the equipment to test blood samples.

No human cases have been confirmed in Africa, and bird cases have been confirmed only in Nigeria to date.