Published: Thursday, February 09, 2006

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - A virulent strain of bird flu was detected in two more northern Nigerian states and has been killing many thousands of birds for weeks, Nigerian authorities said Thursday, with their campaign to combat the outbreak only just beginning.

Nigeria quarantined bird farms throughout its north and neighbouring countries banned poultry imports to try to halt the march of the fatal strain, whose arrival on a poor continent little prepared to cope was first confirmed Wednesday in one Nigerian state.

By Thursday, Nigerian officials said the total was three states, an indication it had been spreading even as authorities tried to determine what was killing thousands of birds.

The World Health Organization said a massive public-awareness campaign in Africa`s most-populous country is crucial and that it was standing by to help.

``The single most important public health priority at this stage is to warn people about the dangers of close contact with sick or dead birds infected with H5N1,`` the agency said in a statement.

The H5N1 bird flu strain may be spreading undetected elsewhere in Africa, said Juan Lubroth, a senior animal health officer at the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Every country is at risk. Every country must prepare. There is a risk that outbreaks of H5N1 infection in birds could spread within Nigeria and into neighbouring countries,`` it said.

The first case to be confirmed was at a large commercial farm in Kaduna state owned by the country`s sports minister, said Agriculture Ministry spokesman, Tope Ajakaiye.

The farm had a total of 46,000 chicken, geese and ostriches. About 40,000 of them died of bird flu and the other 6,000 were destroyed, according to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health, known as the OIE, citing Nigerian officials.

Thursday, Nigerian officials said bird flu had been confirmed at two farms in neighbouring Kano state and one in neighbouring Plateau state, Ajakaiye said.

On Monday, Nigerian officials had said preliminary tests on the deaths of some 60,000 farm-raised birds in Kano showed no trace of bird flu. Follow-up tests, however, confirmed the birds died of a H5N1.

Awalu Haruna, secretary of the Poultry Farmers` Association of Kano, had on Wednesday accused the government of being slow to respond to the epidemic of poultry deaths in the state. He said a quarantine should have been imposed.

Thursday, Junaidu Maina, director of Nigeria`s livestock department said bird farms across the entire north of Africa`s most-populous country were now under quarantine.

Ian Slingenbergh, an information officer for the UN agriculture agency in Rome, expressed concern about the difficulties in implementing the Nigerian measures.

``They require a lot of logistics, co-operation at both ministry level and with police who have to enforce movement restrictions for people in the streets.``

Slingenbergh said his agency was rushing experts to Nigeria to better ascertain needs.

Nigeria`s neighbours Benin and Niger banned poultry imports from Nigeria Thursday and called on citizens to report any suspicious deaths among birds, either wild or domesticated.

Cameroon, which earlier banned fowl imports from Europe when the virus was confirmed there, said veterinary officials were meeting to determine a course of action. Chad, another Nigerian neighbour, announced no steps.

Sub-Saharan Africa, with about 600 million of the world`s poorest people, is particularly ill-equipped to deal with a major health crisis.

Countries like Uganda and Ethiopia don`t even have equipment to test for the strain and some villagers may be unaware of the disease`s threat.

The United States pledged $25 million US to help combat the spread of the virus, and was sending a team from its Atlanta, Ga.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to Nigeria.

Health officials are concerned that H5N1, which has caused human as well as bird deaths in Asia and spread to Europe, the Middle East and now Africa, might mutate into a form spread easily among humans, triggering a human flu pandemic that could kill millions.

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