International experts deploy to help check bird flu spread

International health experts have deployed in northern Nigeria, where suspicious poultry deaths have been reported in eight northern states, with three states confirming cases of the deadly H5N1 virus. Officials with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Wednesday joined Nigerian veterinary teams in farms in Kano, Kaduna and Plateau states – where the first cases of the virus were confirmed – to cull birds and disinfect farms, said Helder Muteia, FAO representative in Nigeria. “We are working with the livestock departments and the teams are already visiting the farms,” Muteia said. If suspected cases in five other northern states are confirmed, the H5N1 virus will have reached eight of 36 states in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with nearly 130 million people. The H5N1 virus can jump to humans with fatal consequences. The most recent fatalities have been in China, Turkey and Iraq, according to the World Health Organisation. Experts are concerned that the virus could mutate and pass from human to human, causing a pandemic. Teams fighting bird flu in Nigeria urgently need protective clothing and transportation for moving quickly to farms where outbreaks are reported, FAO team member Demola Majasan said. Teams are also seeking a safer means of killing birds other than slicing the animals’ throats as is currently being done, he said. A 15-member federal team of veterinary officials took over the culling of birds from their state counterparts in Kano on Wednesday, for the first time providing special bags into which birds are thrown and strangled, as opposed to the widely used method of cutting off their heads – a practice officials said posed a higher risk of infection. Mohammed Dantani, head of the federal team, described the bird flu epidemic in Kano state as far worse than the situation in Kaduna, where the first case of the H5N1 virus in Africa was confirmed last week. “It’s certainly worse here but we’re doing all we can to bring the situation under control,” Dantani said. Shehu Bawa, head of a special bird flu monitoring committee set up by the Kano state government, said at least 140,000 chickens have been killed in the state since the presence of the deadly virus was confirmed. Bawa warned that urgent action is needed as the virus appears to be spreading rapidly. Some 30 commercial farms have experienced outbreaks of poultry deaths with symptoms of bird flu in Kano alone, he said.