Concern over African bird-flu spread

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was today confirmed in a third African country, deepening experts’ fears that the disease is becoming endemic on the poor, ill-equipped continent and that it may already be far more widespread than reported.

Poor veterinary services, a lack of laboratories to detect the disease, farmers’ lack of knowledge about bird flu and their fears that they will not be adequately compensated if they report it in their poultry could be masking the true extent of H5N1’s spread in Africa, said animal health experts gathered in Paris.