The Nigerian Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) on Thursday confirmed another outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in Kakara village in the northern state of Kano.

Timothy Obi, leader of the Avian Influenza task force team of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) , told reporters that the institute said it had diagnosed samples of dead chickens from the farm and found them to be infected with the deadly H5N1 virus.

An official at the Avian Influenza Crisis Management Center who preferred anonymity also confirmed the outbreak.

"The virus was detected on Monday among the over 16,000 chickens on the farm," he said, adding that 11 samples of the dead chickens from the farm were taken to the NVRI for laboratory analysis which later confirmed the virus.

Malam Mohammed Aminu Adamu, chairman of Kano Branch of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), said that already all birds at Omatiga farm where the outbreak occurred have been culled while the farm had been decontaminated to curtail possible spread.

According to a source at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the government is worried at the resurgence of the disease in Kano, a month after it was declared free of the virus was worrisome.

The source said the government, the Nigeria Veterinary Council and the FAO officials were intensifying their surveillance, while the NVRI was continuing with the task of finding ways to stamp out the deadly disease.

The outbreak of avian influenza, otherwise known as bird flu, was first confirmed in the country on Feb.7, 2006. But so far no human being has been infected.

Source: Xinhua