The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected for the first
time in poultry in Myanmar and Cameroon, officials in the two
nations said, in the latest sign of the disease's expanding range
in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Experts over the weekend confirmed cases in hundreds of dead
chickens at a farm outside of Myanmar's second largest city,
Mandalay, Than Tun, director of the country's livestock breeding
and veterinary department, said Monday.
Myanmar borders Thailand and China, which together have reported
24 human deaths from the disease.
Cameroon's government announced its first avian case on Sunday,
becoming the fourth African country to be struck by the deadly bird
flu virus.
The fatal virus was first discovered in Africa on a commercial
poultry farm in Nigeria in February. It has since been reported in
Niger and Egypt.
Experts have expressed concern that bird flu was likely to be
spreading undetected in Africa, which is ill-prepared to deal with
the virus and lacks laboratories to detect it.
Cameroon's government said the tests that confirmed the H5N1
strain were carried out in a laboratory in Paris.
Minister of Livestock Aboubakary Sarki told reporters the
infected duck was among 10 birds that died in Maroua from Feb.
12-26. He said the government had already slaughtered birds in the
area as a precaution, but did not say how many.
Sarki said the government had banned the sale of chicken in the
affected area, but some residents contacted by phone said it was
still being sold.
Cameroon also said it was reinforcing a ban on poultry imports
from Nigeria and any other country affected by bird flu.
Authorities imposed the ban shortly after the fatal strain was
reported in Nigeria.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or forced the slaughter
of more than 140 million chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003,
and has recently spread to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Health officials fear H5N1 could evolve into a virus that can be
transmitted easily between people and become a global pandemic.
At least 97 people have died from the disease worldwide,
two-thirds of them in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the World
Health Organization. No human cases have been detected in
Africa.
Humans and poultry live close together on small farms across
Africa, as in Asia where the current H5N1 wave began and where the
virus first jumped to humans.
In Myanmar, teams of experts were sent to the area to begin
slaughtering chickens within a two-mile radius of the farm where
the infected birds were found.
Myanmar's military government — which generally restricts the
free flow of information and exercises tight control over the
mostly state-owned mass media — had previously said it would deal
openly with any bird flu problems.
(Chinadaily.com via agencies March 13, 2006)
