The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today expressed confidence in the United Kingdom?s ability to respond adequately to an outbreak of bird flu at a commercial turkey farm, but warned that greater support was needed to help countries still struggling to control the virus, such as Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria.
Indonesia signs a deal with U.S. vaccine manufacturer Baxter International Inc. for human bird flu samples and the development of vaccine to combat human bird flu.
Egyptian health officials confirmed on Tuesday that Egypt?s 12th fatal victim of bird flu died on 2 February. The victim was a 17-year-old girl from the rural Fayyoum region, south-west of the capital, Cairo. She is believed to have been infected after coming into contact with sick and dead birds at her home.
British authorities, trying to contain an outbreak of avian flu of the lethal H5N1 strain on a turkey farm, have gassed tens of thousands of birds and will continue with the culling.
The United Nations health agency has confirmed a fatal human case of bird flu in Nigeria, Africa?s most populous country, only the second incidence of the H5N1 virus in humans in the sub-Saharan region, and is working with the Nigerian authorities to identify the source of infection.
Although more than 160,000 turkeys have been slaughtered at a farm in Suffolk in England in order to curb the spread of the deadly bird flu virus, officials remain baffled as to the source of the outbreak.
The avian flu, which killed 2600 turkeys at a Suffolk farm, has been confirmed as the H5N1 virus.
An outbreak of bird flu on a farm run by Europe’s biggest turkey manufacturer Bernard Matthews has killed 2500 birds.
The United Nations health agency is helping the government of Nigeria monitor the situation following two suspected fatal bird flu cases in Africa’s most populous country.
A Nigerian woman who died of flu symptoms has tested positive to the H5N1 bird flu virus, Information Minister, Frank Nweke, said.