Nigeria plans huge bird flu cull

[lovuian]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4696878.stm

Nigeria will kill all birds at any farm where suspicious deaths have occurred in a bid to contain Africa's first outbreak of bird flu, a minister says.
Bird flu has been confirmed at one farm in the northern state of Kaduna. Some 45,000 chickens died on a farm owned by Sports Minister Saidu Balarabe Sambawa.

Tests are being carried out on dead poultry at two more farms.

more...

Now Nigeria is having problems too...

[SaveElmer]

1. Culling works...

Look at Turkey and Vietnam. Turkey no outbreaks in a month, Vietnam 4 months. Lets hope Nigeria gets the help they need.

[Mojorabbit]

3. There are new outbreaks in birds in turkey

and nigeria is so poor. In malawi when birds fell dead from ths sky people rushed out to eat them. When part of the population is starving it might amount to a death sentence to cull their poultry. A hard thing.

Then there is this...

The WHO leader fears that Nigeria is not prepared to meet such a tough challenge. "African health systems are already struggling to cope with children and adults suffering from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, respiratory infections and other infectious conditions," Dr Lee says. Human cases of the virus "may be difficult to distinguish from other illnesses. We simply do not know what the impact of exposure to avian influenza will be on the many people who may be already immunocompromised and in a fragile state of health."

and this...
Shortly after birds started dying in the house, the owner's two children started coughing up blood, officials said. Tests are being carried out to see if they have bird flu, Chori said, "but it's too early to tell".





and yesterday Romania, Greece,Azerbaijan, plus this week Hong Kong and saudi arabia and bulgaria confirmed bird flu in birds. There is another cluster in people in Indonesia, and more cases in China.

[SaveElmer]

4. Very well contained...

Culling does work...there of course are going to be limited outbreaks...but no new widespread outbreak, and no human cases. And of course Vietnam is a success story so far...definitely showing the path to containing this. Africa I agree is a serious problem which is why it requires a world wide effort to get in there and help them.

[leesa]

2. Have we gotten to a hundred deaths world-wide yet? This bird flu terror

is really a bust.

[Mojorabbit]

5. In the eighties I believe of confirmed deaths

but more tests are being run and a lot of cases are not being counted by WHO.

[SaveElmer]

6. That goes a bit too far...

It is still something to be concerned about. And the steps that are being taken to contain it are needed anyway whether or not this virus mutates into a pandemic form. And, it is devastating to poultry industries in some of these countries. That fact alone warrants a strong response.

It is clear that bird vaccination and culling do work to contain the virus. The test now will be if the world can mobiize to help Africa.