Bird flu spreading South

IN what appears to be the first sign that the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in Nigeria is spreading South, the Federal Ministry of Health has commenced investigation into suspected cases of the disease in an area near Abuja and a neighbouring state, just as President Olusegun Obasanjo announced the setting up of laboratories to serve as a check against the spread of the disease.

Announcing the development yesterday, Health Minister, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, said in addition to confirmed cases of poultry flocks infected in Kaduna, Kano and Plateau States, health officials were testing samples from several neighbouring regions.

His words: �We have suspected cases in Nasarawa, the Federal Capital Territory and Katsina.� He said if confirmed, the new cases would show that the first outbreak of the H5N1 disease in Africa had now spread through most of the North of the country and entered the Niger River Basin.

According to him, there has not yet been any confirmed cases of the virus� which has proved fatal in around half of the approxiametly 180 cases reported in Asia � spreading to humans, but that the situation is being watched.

The pointman of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Abdussalami Nasidi, who is directing the effort to monitor the spread of the epidemic, said more cases were being investigated near the country�s northern frontier with Niger, Yobe and Jigawa states.

No details on the number of farms affected were given but unconfirmed sources said outbreaks in 30 sites in Kano State alone had been reported.
Announcing the setting up of �well-equipped laboratories� when he met at the State House with a delegation of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank led by the Executive Vice President of the IFC, the President said the laboratories, which are already operational would serve Nigeria and other countries of the West African sub-region.

Meanwhile, health experts from the United Nations, UNICEF, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Healh have arrived to help contain the spread of the disease. In the technical teams and experts is the Regional Director of the World Health Organisation, Mohammed Belhocine, who is on ground to help identify and contain the bird flu out break in the North of the country as the disease spreads.

In a statement, Abdussalami said: �We�ve not received any more human cases, apart from those two children. We sent their samples to the National Veterinary Research Institute in Vom and Ibadan for tests and we intend to send a sample to London.� He said the two boys had been told to stay at home following unconfirmed press reports that the elder one, a four-year-old, had returned to school last week after hospital treatment.

But Kaduna Agriculture commissioner, Lawal Samaila Yakawada, said there was no plan as yet to clean up or seal off the farm itself. �We can only quarantine a farm when the disease has been confirmed there.�

In another development, the Kano State Poultry Farmers Association blamed the state government for the invasion of the bird disease suspected to be Avian influenza flu in the state, saying they made efforts to intimate government before the disease spread into the state, just as they demand to know the cause of the problem.
Nigerian health workers set off to exterminate poultry on three more farms yesterday, while farmers warned that the bird flu was spreading rapidly through the North after allegations from international bodies that action to contain the virus had been slow and piecemeal. �So far, more than 150,000 birds have died, spread across more than 30 farms,� said Aminu Adamu, chairman of the Kano State Poultry Farmers� Association, which held a news conference to demand greater compensation.

Head of Kano State�s bird flu eradication team, Shehu Bawa, said his team would head to three more farms on Monday to cull, burn and bury poultry. �We�re expecting more,� he added. Dr Lami Lombin, Director of the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), said her scientists had been sent a frozen chicken from Sokoto State following a suspected outbreak there. �It could take two or three days to test it,� she said.

In Abuja, the agriculture ministry refused to comment on complaints that its failure to close down poultry markets and properly quarantine infected areas could lead to a rapid spread of the disease. In a statement, state Chairman of the Association, Alhaji Aminu Adamu who lamented that over 150,000 birds had died from the strange bird infection from over 30 poultry farms owned by their members in the state, said their major concern was the nonchalant attitude of the state government over the escalating daily increasing death rates of birds in the state.

His words: �We promptly tried to meet with the state Ministry of Agriculture officials over the infection, but we were shocked to meet a sort of hostility. We thought that given the seriousness of the situation, government attention should be drawn. But regrettably our letter dated February 2nd 2006 in respect of it is yet to generate a response.�

Following the indifferent position of the state government over the plight of poultry farmers in the state compared to what other state governments are doing for poultry farmers who are victim of the epidemics, he said the Kano State government had failed them because it had not done enough to curb the situation in the state.
�We want to remind the Kano State government that the action expected of a people�s government as they claimed to be is beyond their eagerness to kill our bird, but to professionally know what the problem is and set processes in place to get us back into business.�

On the compensation for lost layers and broilers, the Kano Poultry Farmers Association chairman, said all its effected members were hearing about compensation were stories from media reports, adding that Kano State government had not offered to pay any compensation to their members who were affected by the bird disease.

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