The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and Senegal’s government both announced on Friday that the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu has been detected on a poultry farm in the northwest of the nation.
According to the Paris-based WOAH. Which cited Senegalese officials, the outbreak happened on March 18 on a farm in the village of Potou close to the town of Louga, not far from the Langue de Barbarie National Park where an H5N1outbreak had been discovered.
It stated that there “is very likely an epidemiological link between both outbreaks.”
The highly pathogenic Type A H5N1 bird flu was first discovered on March 8 in samples taken from migratory royal and sandwich tern birds around Pink Lake and Yoff Island near Dakar, according to Senegal’s livestock ministry.
On March 10, the same disease was verified in terns, seagulls, and great cormorants from the Langue de Barbarie National Park’s breeding island.
“The disease’s emergence coincides with the great transatlantic migration of water birds, some of which stay in the country’s northern wetlands from November to March.” As a result, it is very possible that the virus was spread by migrating birds,” the ministry added in its statement.
The outbreak destroyed 500 birds at a farm in Potou. According to the WOAH, the surviving animals in the flock of 11,400 were slaughtered.
To date, 1,229 bird deaths have been documented at the Langue de Barbarie Park and its surroundings, according to Senegalese officials. It added that 323 and 213 bird deaths were reported at Pink Lake and Yoff Island, respectively.
Avian influenza, also known as bird flu, has been spreading around the globe in the last year, killing over 200 million birds, sending egg prices skyrocketing, and increasing concerns among governments about human transmission.
