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FAO urges Nigeria to increase control
measures to prevent bird flu
Accra, Feb 23, Ghanadot/GNA - The
United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) has urged Nigeria to increase control
measures on poultry
farms, including targeted vaccination, and in markets to
prevent the spread of
bird flu and reduce the risk of further human cases in
Africa’s most populous
country and its spread to neighbouring countries.
In a statement issued after a mission to Nigeria, FAO said
the virus is still
circulating in poultry flocks with outbreaks reported in at
least 10 states over
the past few months.
The virus probably spread along major trade routes, placing
neighbouring
countries at risk from birds moved informally across borders
and increased
surveillance could ensure that countries detect an incursion
of disease without
delay, it added.
“The first confirmed case of H5N1 infection in humans in
Nigeria shows
that there is a continuing danger of human exposure to the
virus from high-risk
practices, such as handling sick or dead chickens, and
especially from unsafe
slaughtering of poultry at home or in markets,” FAO Chief
Veterinary Officer
Joseph Domenech said in a statement issued in Accra by the
UN Information
Centre.
Nigeria is so far the only sub-Saharan country to have
reported a human bird flu fatality, its first and only case
so far.
The only other sub-Saharan country affected is Djibouti on
the opposite,
eastern side of the continent, with one non-fatal case, but
Egypt to the north
has so far suffered 22 cases, 13 of them fatal.
Poultry are brought to markets in Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest
city with about nine million inhabitants, from all over the
country, including from states that have suffered H5N1
outbreaks.
It is therefore not surprising that people buying chickens
and slaughtering them at home may be exposed to infection.
Even where poultry are slaughtered in markets, hygiene
conditions are very poor.
FAO is increasing technical support to the country with
expert advice, supplies and equipment to help bring the
disease under control, and has launched an active disease
surveillance programme funded by the European Union.
FAO says consumption of poultry is safe if it does not come
from outbreak areas and is properly cooked. Slaughtering or
preparation should be undertaken with basic hygiene measures
such as washing hands, knives and surfaces.
Farmers should introduce strict procedures to prevent the
disease from entering their farms including disinfection of
all materials coming onto their property. Contact between
poultry and wild birds should be prevented. New poultry for
rearing should come only from sources that are guaranteed to
be free from avian influenza.
Some 300,000 poultry in Nigeria have died due to H5N1 and
another 400,000 have been culled as part of control
measures.
There have so far been 274 confirmed human cases worldwide,
167 of them fatal, the vast majority in South-East Asia.
UN health officials have been on constant alert to detect
any mutation that could make the disease more easily
transmissible in humans and in a worst case scenario lead to
a deadly pandemic. Nearly all human cases so far have been
traced to contact with infected birds.
The so-called Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920 is estimated
to have killed
from 20 million to 40 million people worldwide.
GNA
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