Bird Flu found in Cameroon

Cameroon has become the fourth African country to be struck by the deadly bird flu virus, the government announced today.

The H5N1 bird flu strain was detected in a duck on a farm close to the northern town of Maroua, near the border with neighbouring Nigeria, the government said in a statement broadcast on state radio.

The fatal virus was first discovered in Africa on a commercial poultry farm in Nigeria in February. It has since been reported in Niger and Egypt.

Experts have expressed concern that bird flu was spreading undetected in Africa, which lacks laboratories to detect the virus.

Cameroon’s government said the tests that confirmed the H5N1 strain were carried out in a laboratory in Paris.