Deadly Bird Flu Strain Hits Africa
Outbreak In Nigerian Chickens Is First Reported Case On Continent
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A chicken hovers at the feet of a man holding food on his hand in Lagos, Nigeria, Wednesday Feb. 8, 2006. (AP)
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Iraqi health workers collect fowl from local village farms, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006, on the outskirts of Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. (AP)
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An Iraqi boy looks at pet birds at a local bird market, Monday, Jan. 30, 2006, in Baghdad, Iraq. (AP)
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Iraqi Minister of Agriculture Ali al-Bahadli gives a press conference following his meeting wtih Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad 30 January 2006. (Getty Images/Ali Al-Saadi)
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Chicken are seen in a coop in the Turkish occupied area at the divided capital of Nicosia, Cyprus, on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006. (AP)
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The Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health said Wednesday that Nigeria reported the outbreak on the farm in Jaji, a village in the northern state of Kaduna. Agriculture Minister Adamu Bello confirmed to reporters in Abuja on Wednesday that bird flu was detected in samples taken on Jan. 16 from birds on the Jaji farm.
"We are dealing with a new continent," said Alex Thiermann, an expert for the World Organization for Animal Health, known as the OIE, told the Associated Press in an interview.
Experts are concerned that H5N1, which has caused human as well as bird deaths in Asia and spread to Europe and the Middle East, might mutate into a form spread easily among humans, triggering a pandemic that could kill millions. So far, H5N1 has passed only from birds to humans, not from human to human.
Experts have long been concerned about Africa's ability to deal with a bird flu outbreak. Thiermann noted that some African countries have "very weak" veterinary systems, although he also commended Nigeria's response so far.
In other recent developments:
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