Algeria declares state of emergency over bird flu outbreak

Algeria declared a state of emergency on Tuesday over an outbreak of bird flu in the north east of the country.

Minister of Agriculture Abdelhamid Hamdani announced the state of emergency in a press conference.

He was quoted by Anadolu Agency as having said: “The source of this virus is migratory birds and we [Algeria] have put all regions on alert in anticipation of any emergency.”

Hamdani later stressed that “the epidemic was contained in Ain Fakroun town”, where the outbreak started.

The H5N8 strain is fatal to birds, but no cases of transmission to humans have been reported.

The declaration came after the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) confirmed the outbreak of H5N8 bird flu on a farm in Ain Fakroun in the Oum Al Bugahi province of Algeria on Tuesday.

The OIE said the outbreak has so far killed 50,000 birds on the farm and that the remaining 1,200 birds in the flock were slaughtered, Reuters reported.

The Algerian directorate general of veterinary services and forests has reportedly established a monitoring system in the country to prevent the spread of the disease.

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The monitoring system will remain in force until the migratory birds, which are believed to have carried the disease to Algeria, return north in the spring.

Veterinary services across the country have been instructed to continue surveying birds for possible symptoms of the disease.

A major disinfectant operation was performed through the province of Oum Al Bugahi after the 1,200 birds were culled, in an effort to wipe out the disease.

The director of agricultural services in Oum Al Bugahi province said a survey conducted after the area was disinfected “did not reveal any other outbreaks”.

Since November several countries around the world, including Russia, India, Israel and many European countries have reported outbreaks of multiple strains of bird flu.

In France millions of ducks have been slaughtered to stop the spread of the virulent strain of bird flu which ripped through poultry farms in the southwest of the country in December.

The H5N8 strain was first detected in a bird in a pet shop on the Mediterranean island of Corsica in November before it spread to mainland Europe, the Guardian reported.

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