10 March 2006
Bird Flu Detected in 11 Nigerian States
Containment efforts escalate; more species affected
By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington – One month after the first official confirmation of a dangerous form of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Nigeria, the disease now has been detected in flocks in 11 of the West African nation’s 37 states.
About 450,000 birds have been destroyed or died from disease as poultry producers and health officials work together to contain the damage and prevent further spread of the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported March 9.
Nigerian agriculture officials earlier acknowledged that lax regulatory control of the movement of poultry across borders is one likely way the virus entered Nigeria. That also may explain the appearance of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in late February In Niger, which shares a border with Nigeria’s Kano state.
“It will be vitally important to have disease containment plans in place,” said WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook in Nairobi, Kenya, March 9 as he urged African nations to limit the spread of bird flu.
This dangerous form of avian influenza has been confirmed in 33 nations so far, with tests still under way in several other countries where bird deaths are suspect. Since this form of the virus first appeared in Southeast Asia in 2003, an estimated 200 million birds have died or been destroyed in attempts to contain the disease.
Border controls and poultry import bans are among the strategies nations are using to protect their flocks from migrating H5N1. The United States first imposed an embargo on birds and bird products from nations affected by this highly pathogenic form of avian influenza in February 2004. On March 6, the Department of Health and Human Services amended the embargo to forbid such imports from Nigeria and Egypt. On March 9, the list of nations under embargo was expanded to include India and Niger.
The European Union has imposed import bans on potentially risky poultry products and adopted tighter bio-security measures. Theses measures require imposition of protection zones 3 kilometers around the site where infected birds are found, and a broader 10 kilometer surveillance zone in which the movement of poultry and hatching eggs must be controlled strictly. Fairs, markets, shows or any other gathering of poultry are prohibited in these zones.
This form of bird flu has leapt the species barrier and infected humans in 176 cases, resulting in 97 deaths, the latest confirmed March 10 by WHO. The Indonesian government has attributed the death of a 4-year-old boy to H5N1, the latest of 21 deaths in the Southeast Asian nation.
Azerbaijan is investigating disease in 10 people with respiratory illness to determine if H5N1 is the cause. The first disease in animals was detected there in February.
Other mammals are also at risk of exposure to this strain of influenza. German health officials March 9 confirmed the appearance of the disease in the stone marten, a nocturnal mammal that feeds on birds. It is presumed that this creature -- found alive, but severely ill – was infected by eating an H5N1-infected bird. Three infected cats also have been found in Germany, but the WHO announcement on these discoveries describes infections of nonbird species as rare events.
U.S. government and academic organizations have been conducting an ongoing testing program to look for bird flu viruses in migratory flocks. Flyways crossing Alaska are considered the most likely place for a highly pathogenic influenza strain to enter North America, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, because of the intermingling of native and Asian flocks that occurs there.
H5N1 has not been detected in North America so far, although more common, less dangerous bird flu viruses have been detected. The U.S. agencies will be conducting tests on up to 100,000 migratory birds in 2006 in an expanding federal, state and regional disease surveillance effort.
The U.N. senior coordinator for avian and human influenza, David Nabarro, said March 8 that migratory patterns likely will carry avian influenza into the Americas within six months to 12 months. (See related article.)
For additional information on the disease and efforts to combat it, see Bird Flu.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
