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Poultry, Not Wild Birds, Most Often Carries Deadly Avian Flu to Africa
H5N1 has been found in three duck species that spend winter in Africa.
(By Bogdan Cristel -- Reuters)
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About 80,000 birds died at a large farm in the northern state of Kano in early January. At the time, the deaths were attributed to Newcastle disease and cold cholera, but may have been caused by H5N1 influenza. The first confirmed cases were in Kaduna state, about 100 miles to the south.
In 2002, Nigeria imported 1.2 million chickens, according to statistics on the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Web site. Nearly all the birds were day-old chicks.
China, Nigeria and the FAO signed a $22.7 million agreement in March 2003 to have 520 Chinese agriculture experts, including poultry technicians, help Nigerian farmers. Nigeria also imported live birds from China until January 2004, when the trade was banned because of bird flu outbreaks in Asia.
Despite the import ban, numerous reports say chickens continue to come in from China. At a news conference last week, Bello said that "birds come every day from China, Turkey . . . so Nigeria is exposed," according to a newspaper report.
In a study published this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team led by two Chinese researchers reported that a survey of more than 50,000 birds in live-poultry markets there found 1 percent were infected with H5N1 virus.
The researchers also sampled about 13,000 migratory birds and found that six were carrying H5N1 and did not appear to be ill -- evidence that healthy migrants may be able to carry the microbe long distances.
The genetic diversity in the virus samples from domestic chickens led the researchers to deduce that "H5N1 virus is perpetuated in poultry largely through the movement of poultry and poultry products, rather than by . . . migrating birds."
Although no H5N1 has been found in wild birds in West Africa, elsewhere the virus has been found in three duck species that spend winter in Africa. They are the garganey, the northern pintail and the northern shoveller -- about 3.5 million birds in all -- said Alex Kaat of Wetlands International.
None of the wintering places are close to the chicken outbreaks, however, Kaat said.
