Kano not source of bird flu --- Expert
By ABDULLAHI D. ABDULLAHI, Group News Editor

CONTRARY to mischievous claims from certain quarters, the bird flu or Avian Influenza did not start in Sambawa Farms in Kaduna state nor was it imported into the country by a farmer from Kano state. The disease was however, only first diagnosed in that farm.
This assertion was made by Dr. Shehu Ibrahim Bawa of the Veterinary Department, Ministry of Agriculture Kano state, in a paper titled,’’ Tackling Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) in Nigeria: Surveillance and National Preparedness.’’
In the paper presented at a two-day workshop on Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza: Getting the story organized for journalists in Kano by Voice of America during the week, Dr. Bawa affirmed that, ‘’investigations revealed that even before that many farmers in Kano had lost all their birds through an unconfirmed disease that did not respond to various treatments and had similar clinical signs as AI.’’
Explaining further, Dr. Bawa stated that, the investigation also revealed that some villages in Jigawa state had lost all their local chickens, ducks, turkeys and G. fowls, a scenario he said, different from the usual new castle disease outbreaks in which some of the birds usually survived.
He pointed out that possibly, the initial outbreak started between late November and early December 2005 in Jigawa or Yobe state around the wetland through the activities of migratory birds and went on undetected until February 2006.
‘’We should not forget that Nigeria lies along two important wild birds migratory routes, the Atlantic flyway and the East Africa-Asia flyway,’’ Dr. Bawa emphasized, adding that prior to the outbreak at Sambawa Farms in January 2006, Nigeria had never experienced any outbreak.
Bawa noted that it was in the course of investigation of the possible source of the infection of the chickens in Sambawa Farm that Kano was found to be experiencing the disease outbreak with many of the farms destroyed by it.
He, however, stated that after the confirmation of the initial outbreak, the Federal Department of Livestock and Pest Control Services (FDL and PCS) under the federal ministry of agriculture and rural development set up a committee to immediately respond to the emergency by depopulating and decontaminating the affected farms in order to prevent further spread of the disease.
‘’The international communities and donour agencies like European Union, FAO, USAID, African Union, Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources, Centre for Disease Control (CDC), UNICEF and African Development Bank (ADB) have responded quickly by providing technical, financial and material support towards containing the disease,’’ he stressed.
Similarly, he added, all states of the federation including the unaffected were sensitized with surveillance and other control measures are being put in place and in Kano about seven farms have been depopulated after the recent resurgence but there is no serious threat.
In the same vein, Bawa noted that as at October 2006, over 321,812 had died, over 593,838 had been depopulated and the sum of N107,639,866 paid as compensation to farmers in the country.
He recommended some preventive measures to be taken as capacity building, enhancing bio-security in farms, intensification of surveillance and disease reputing, enforcing of movement restrictions as well as public enlightenment.
Dr. Bawa was however, quick to point out financial constraints, ill-equipped laboratories and meager compensation of N250, logistic supply to veterinary staff as major problems hindering the containment of the disease.
The workshop organized in collaboration with Broadcasting Board of Governors and International Broadcasting Bureau was attended by over 30 journalists (participants) drawn from Kano, Bauchi, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Jigawa and Zamfara states.