Benin’s agriculture ministry on Wednesday confirmed an outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 avian flu near the capital Porto Novo, reported Reuters.
Benin is the latest West African country to declare an avian flu outbreak. Ivory Coast identified the disease last week near Abidjan.
The last avian flu outbreaks in Ivory Coast were detected in 2006 and 2015. As a precautionary measure, the government has already ordered all poultry in the affected area slaughtered and has also blocked poultry imports from infected countries.
Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo also detected H5N1 cases this year. Ghana and Togo governments killed thousands of birds after detecting cases in June and July.
In a statement, Benin’s agriculture ministry said laboratory testing conducted last week showed that several recent bird fatalities in Benin’s southern Seme-Podji and Abomey Calavi districts were associated with positive H5N1 cases.
The statement said Benin is now waiting for those results to be confirmed by a laboratory in Italy.
“To date, the situation at infected farms is under control and measures are being taken to determine the extent of any spread,” it said.
Benin’s agriculture ministry called on those working in the poultry sector to boost and strengthen biosecurity measures and report any suspected cases of the H5N1 avian flu to the ministry.
H5N1 was first detected in 1996 among geese in China. The avian flu has since been detected in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe. It can occasionally spread to humans, although no community spread of the virus among humans has been detected yet. The flu virus is transmitted by poultry as well as migrating wild birds.
Last month, the National IHR focal point of India notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of one human case of avian Influenza A (H5N1) from Haryana state.
