Nigerian farmers and local officials are still waiting for the government to confirm whether they are dealing with an outbreak of bird flu

IRIN:

As birds perish by the thousands in the northern Nigerian state of Kano, farmers and local officials say they are still waiting for the government to confirm whether they are dealing with an outbreak of the killer H5N1 bird flu virus.

"We are sad that until this hour nobody from the ministry of agriculture has shown up," said Awalu Haruna, secretary of the Kano State branch of the Poultry Association of Nigeria. "We are only doing what we can to stop the spread of this disease, believe me nobody has told us that it is bird flu."

As he spoke, three kilometres away at Savet Farms, a commercial poultry operation, workers on Friday were busy picking dead chickens out from live ones using their bare hands.

No protective clothing was used. The piles of dead carcasses were burned or buried. Live birds remained on the farm.

Nigeria this week reported Africa's first confirmed case of the H5NI strain of avian flu, which has killed millions of birds and has jumped to humans, infecting over 100 people. Handling sick birds is believed to be one way of catching the disease.

The deadly H5N1 strain was confirmed in the neighbouring northern state of Kaduna on Wednesday, where tens of thousands of fowl are reported dead.

In Kano on Friday, where more suspect poultry deaths have been reported, Agriculture Ministry official Salihu Jibrin could not confirm there was an outbreak of bird flu. "I cannot tell you anything yet, we are still awaiting test results," he said.

The National Veterinary Research Institute has confirmed bird flu cases in poultry in Kaduna, Kano and Plateau states.

Experts have warned that unless the virus is identified quickly and contained it could spread rapidly, and countries across West Africa this week moved to ban imports of live fowl and poultry products from Nigeria and tighten border controls.

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