By Abdul Raheem Aodu
Kaduna
Residents of Kaduna state have been warned to wash their hands properly and ensure that chicken and other poultry products are properly cooked before they eat it, following a confirmed case of bird flu at a poultry farm in Mando area of the state.
Confirming the new case of bird flu at a poultry farm in Mando, the Kaduna state Commissioner for health, Dr. Joseph Thot, said that the state government had taken concrete measures to prevent the disease from spreading, while he urged the public not to panic, as all technical staff of the ministry had been put on red alert.
The Commissioner directed poultry farmers to “report sudden and unprecedented dying of birds on their farms for appropriate action. Al
l the birds at the affected farm had been culled, and the farm disinfected and the workers screened for any possible transmission from bird to human and there is no human infection.”
Thot said efforts were on to trace the source of the outbreak, adding that technical team would revisit the farm in the next two weeks to ensure that it was safe.
The Kaduna state Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Isaac Bodam, said the government would commence sensitisation program for poultry farmers in the state on the avian influenza, while he advised Nigerians “to wash their hands after handling birds, avoid eating raw or half done meat and stay away from sick birds.”
Bodam listed symptoms of bird flu to include, “drop in production of eggs, high morbidity and mortality are some of the clinical signs of the disease in birds, while high fever, flu, headache, cough, chest pain, were some of the signs in humans.”