Ethiopian officials announced on Tuesday that tests are under way at a southern poultry farm after thousands of chickens died of a ”bird-flu-like” disease.
Samples from more than 6 000 chickens that died in the Endibir area of the country’s Southern Nation and Nationality People’s (SNNP) regional state are being sent to an Italian laboratory for further study.
”The bird-flu resembling disease was observed in Gubere poultry centre … and laboratory tests carried out locally indicated the existence of a bird-flu-like disease,” the ministry of agriculture and rural development said.
Ministry spokesperson Mulugeta Debalkew said measures are being taken to prevent the disease from spreading, including a ban on the sale of the poultry and poultry products in a 60km radius of Gubere.
Sileshi Zewde, the ministry’s chief veterinarian, said 6 082 chickens died at the poultry farm and that examinations of 49 of them confirmed the presence of a bird-flu-like disease.
The fear is that the disease will turn out to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the bird-flu virus that has killed more than 90 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003.
Sileshi said all remaining live chickens at the Gubere centre will be killed an incinerated as a precaution.
Ethiopia, along with other East African Rift Valley nations such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, is considered at high risk for the spread of the virus as millions of migratory birds flock there during the European winter.
The first cases of the virus in Niger were reported on Monday.
In Nairobi, Kenyan authorities said 400 dead chickens are being tested for H5N1.
Kenyan authorities are testing hundreds of dead chickens that were found dumped in the capital for a possible outbreak of avian flu, officials there said on Monday.
Although the H5N1 strain does not spread easily between people, those who come in contact with sick birds can contract it and scientists say millions of people worldwide could die if it mutates into a disease communicable among humans.
African nations, whose largely impoverished populations are susceptible to illness, have appealed for help in dealing with what experts predict are almost certain outbreaks of the disease on the continent.
Many, including Ethiopia, have slapped full or partial imports on imports of poultry, poultry products and wild birds, and have begun monitoring migratory birds as they arrive.
Nigeria and Egypt have both reported cases of avian flu in birds. — Sapa-AFP