Cameroon fourth African country to be hit by bird flu

Mar 13 2006

Cameroon has become the fourth African country to be hit by the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

Government sources say Cameroon's first case of bird flu has been found in the country's far North province, in a duck on a farm near the town of Maroua, on the border with Nigeria.

The lethal strain of the virus has previously been found in poultry in Nigeria, Niger and also in Egypt, and Cameroon banned all imports of Nigerian poultry last month.

According to an official statement the case was detected following laboratory tests conducted in Paris on dead chicks in Maroua were positive.

It did not initially say whether the bird flu outbreak was of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain.

To date no human cases of the H5N1 strain have yet been found in Africa.

But the United Nations has warned of a possible regional disaster if the disease continues to spread.