The Ogun State government on Friday said bird flu has been discovered at a breeder poultry farm, located at Orile-Ilugun in Odeda Local Government Council Area (Ilugun LCDA) part of the state.
The state government added that it has also activated bird flu control measures at the poultry farm to check the spread of the flu that causes Avian influenza.
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs. Adepeju Adebajo, who made this known, explained that the proactive steps became necessary to tackle the bird flu discovered on the farm.
She said the ministry had visited the farm on September 7, to carry out disease surveillance activities, with the intention of curtailing any potential spread of the virus.
“The causative agent was found to be H5N8, which is a variant of the H5N1 virus, that was previously known to exist in Nigeria,” Adebajo said.
She however said there was no cause for alarm, as no live bird from other poultry farms in the state had tested positive to the highly pathogenic bird flu.
According to her, samples of birds taken from another poultry farm in the Local Government Area of the state had tested negative to the H5N8 virus.
“Other farms and markets in Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode, Ilaro and Ayetoro were not left out,” she added.
The last reported incidence of bird flu in Ogun State occurred in Oct 2015.
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