The Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina has in an emergency meeting held today ( thursday 29/01/2015) at the Federal Capital City of Nigeria,Abuja disclosed that 4 more states in the country has been hit by the H5N1 influenza Virus popularlly known as Bird Flu bringing the total number of affected states to 11.
According to the Minister " At the time of my briefing the nation on 21 January 2015,seven states had reported cases of the Bird flu. As of Yesterday, a total of 11 states has reported positive cases. Dr Adesina said.
In his confirmatory message, the virus is now in Delta, Edo, Imo, Gombe, Jigawa, Lagos, Kano, Ogun, Oyo, Rivers, and Plateau state.
The latest bird flu outbreak was first reported in mid-January in the states of Kano and Lagos. The worst-hit state is Kano in the north where 136,905 birds were exposed with a 13 percent mortality rate.
In a bid to curtail the spread of the epidermic Adesina concluded that the government will be compensating farmers with a sum of 145 million naira ($763,150), or about 1,450 naira ($7.63) per lost bird, within the next three days.
Nonetheless,Nigerians have been encouraged to take specific emergency preventive measures in handling cases of outbreak which includes depopulation, intensified survelliance, decontamination of the infected farms and live birds and finally quarantine.
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