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World News: Bird flu found in Nigeria Black Habits Articles (AP) It appears the worrisome H5N1 avian flu virus that has been plaguing parts of Asia has found its way to Africa’s most densely populated country, Nigeria.

A highly pathogenic strain of H5N1, which initial testing suggests is closely matched to the virus from Asia, has been found in poultry flocks in a large farm in northern Nigeria — the first reported case of the disease in Africa, the Parisbased World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE, said yesterday.

The OIE reported 40,000 of 46,000 poultry in a commercial, batterycage operation in Jaji, a village in the northern Kaduna state, had suc*****bed to the virus. Nigerian authorities disinfected the farm and introduced quarantine measures and controls on the movement of animals.

Experts have long worried about the virus seeding outbreaks in Africa, with its weak veterinary and public health infrastructures and limited animal and human disease surveillance. Nigeria, which has one of the continent’s largest industrial poultry sectors, presents unique challenges for those who hope to contain the outbreak before it spreads and becomes endemic.

“It’s going to be very difficult to mount an eradication campaign,” Dr. Alex Thiermann, president of the OIE’s international animal health code, said from Paris.

While experts have assumed it was only a matter of time before H5N1 made its way to Africa, they have dreaded this development. - The Associated Press
Posted on Saturday, February 18 @ 00:00:00 UTC by jcohen



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