At least 500,000 poultry have died or been slaughtered in Burkina Faso, where an outbreak of avian flu was officially detected in December, Burkinabe Minister of Animal and Fisheries Resources Moussa Kaboré announced on Saturday. “At the end of December 2021, we noticed a high mortality of poultry on breeding sites in our country. The analyzes carried out by the national livestock laboratory have established the presence of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, also called avian influenza virus,” declared Mr. Kaboré during a press conference, specifying that he is “the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of Avian Influenza”.
On January 7, there were "about 500,000 dead poultry and more than 1.3 million lost egg pads", he said, adding that 42 breeding outbreaks, spread over seven regions including the center and the Center West, have been identified. "In sites where the presence of the disease is confirmed by the veterinary or health services, poultry census, slaughter, incineration and burial of poultry and other dead birds,” he continued. Faced with the progression of the epizootic, a response plan providing for the monitoring of wild bird gathering sites and the capture of sick or injured birds, for the purpose of biological samples for laboratory analysis, has been put in place. .
Burkina Faso has been affected since 2006 by various waves of bird flu epizootics, brought by migratory birds or by contamination of other animals from neighboring countries.
Livestock, the main source of savings in rural areas in Burkina, is the third source of foreign currency after gold and cotton for this country, which has a national poultry population estimated at 52 million heads.