The Niger State Government has announced the outbreak of avian influenza (flu) in a cluster of poultry farms in the state.
The Information Officer, Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, Mr Abubakar Kuta, stated this in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday in Minna.
TheNewsGuru.com, TNG gathered that the poultry in the state were being infected by type A flu.
The statement disclosed that thousands of birds in the state, worth millions of naira, had been lost to the Avian flu.
It advised poultry farmers to be vigilant and to report any incident of sudden high mortality of their birds to the ministry.
The statement advised farmers to maintain strict farm hygiene, restrict movement of vehicles and people into their farms.
It also advised them to disinfect farm premises and utensils to check the transmission of the virus.
It also cautioned farmers against the exchange of egg crates and other equipment from other farms.
The statement advised the public and livestock marketers to minimise contacts with sick and dead birds.
According to Wikipedia, Avian influenza, known informally as avian flu or bird flu, is a variety of influenza caused by viruses adapted to birds. The type with the greatest risk is highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Bird flu is similar to swine flu, dog flu, horse flu and human flu as an illness caused by strains of influenza viruses that have adapted to a specific host. Out of the three types of influenza viruses (A, B, and C), influenza A virus is a zoonotic infection with a natural reservoir almost entirely in birds. Avian influenza, for most purposes, refers to the influenza A virus.
Though influenza A is adapted to birds, it can also stably adapt and sustain person-to-person transmission. Recent influenza research into the genes of the Spanish flu virus shows it to have genes adapted from both human and avian strains. Pigs can also be infected with human, avian, and swine influenza viruses, allowing for mixtures of genes (reassortment) to create a new virus, which can cause an antigenic shift to a new influenza A virus subtype which most people have little to no immune protection against.