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Bird flu-hit Nigeria bans movement of poultry
Nigeria on Saturday banned the movement of poultry within the country in the wake of an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.
Nigeria on Saturday banned the movement of poultry within the country in the wake of an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.
"The presidential committee on the avian flu has imposed restrictions on the movement of live poultry from state to state and also within the state," Information Minister Frank Nweke told journalists in Abuja.
He said that the ban was necessary or else "it will be difficult for us to continue to localise the outbreak," adding that the disease has so far been confined in some northern states.
Agriculture Minister Adamu Bello clarified that the ban on poultry movement within a state would be enforced only where there were confirmed or suspected bird flu cases.
Nigeria last week Wednesday confirmed Africa's first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bid flu, triggering fears that the epidemic could spread rapidly through Africa's most populous nation of 36 states.
