Bird flu hits Kebbi

Avian influenza,  better known as bird flu has hit some parts  of Kebbi State.

But the state Director, Veterinary Services, Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dr Alheri Ibrahim-Sanchi, says the state government had already started to take steps to curtain the spread.

Ibrahim-Sanchi who said this  on Saturday while addressing journalists shortly after fumigating a farm infected with the disease located at Amanawa village, Kalgo, outskirts of Birnin Kebbi, revealed that the disease had killed 14 peacocks in the affected facility so far.

Ibrahim-Sanchi said government sent a team of veterinary doctors for preliminary investigation after  some peacocks were reported to have been ill.

He said: “When those samples were analysed, unfortunately for us, they returned positive for ‘Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1)’, so, this is what necessitated this exercise, to first of all come to the scene where these birds were resident and do the needful.”

He said the authorities were saddled with the task of  preventing the disease  from spreading  beyond the affected facility.