Deadly bird flu spreads in Burkina Faso (West Africa)
Burkina Faso is preparing to cull more poultry after the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu first detected near the capital last month spread to two more towns, the government said late on Friday.
The disease had been confirmed in Bobo-Dioulasso, the second city some 360 km (220 miles) west of the capital Ouagadougou, and in Sabou, around 100 km west of the capital, the government said. A new outbreak had also been found in Ouagadougou itself.
The impoverished West African nation first confirmed in early April that it had found the virus in poultry at a motel on the outskirts of Ouagadougou. It has since isolated the area and culled birds within a 3 km (2-mile) radius.
“The original site has been disinfected. But the measures will be stepped up and the same ones will be taken at the new sites,” Animal Resources Minister Tiemoko Konate told reporters.
He said the new cases—found in traditional artisanal rather than modern farms—had been confirmed on Friday after tests carried out by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) at its laboratory in Weybridge, England.