西非一小国农业部长说贝尔湾家禽中两次爆发的禽流感系H5N1致命种.

        在星期天晚些时候的一次声明中,Robert Dovonou部长说,意大利一家实验室的试验结果已经证实本月初在首都Porto Novo北部和商业之都Cotonou一个农场所发现的病例所感染的是H5N1病毒.

        当政府在十二月七号首次通告可疑的爆发时,保健部官员说.已经在围绕隔离区五公里(三英里)范围内捕杀了数百只飞禽进行防范同时对九英里范围内的所有农场进行了消毒.

家禽进口被禁止,同时强行限制农场禽类的流动.

"上星期送往意大利的标本进行的试验已经肯定地显示........两个可疑场所确实感染了H5N1A型禽流感病毒."Dovonou说.

        贝尔湾的东邻尼日利亚是当地受禽流感侵袭最严重的国家之一,Saharn Africa已经证实今年年初有人死于这种病毒.

        贝尔湾的西邻多哥公告说这种致命禽流感病毒首次爆发是在五月份,后来陆续发现了新的病例.

根据世界卫生组织报告,自从2003年禽流感病毒再度出现在香港后,全世界已有二百多人死于这种病毒,主要是在亚洲.  禽流感在非洲爆发已经发出了警报因为流行病学家担心非洲大陆广泛的贫困缺少专业的兽医医疗设备以及巨大的缺乏管理的牧场会使禽流感的爆发长久的不引起重视,同时增加了病毒变异的风险.

In a statement late on Sunday, Minister Robert Dovonou said test results from a laboratory in Italy confirmed the H5N1 virus in the cases discovered earlier this month north of the capital Porto Novo and on a farm in the commercial capital Cotonou.

When the suspected outbreaks were first announced by the government on December 7, health ministry officials said several hundred birds were slaughtered as a precautionary measure in a 5 km (3 mile) radius around the two separate locations. All farms within a 9 mile radius were also disinfected.

The import of poultry was banned and restrictions on the movement of birds between farms imposed.

"The tests carried out on samples sent last week to Italy have shown positive ... The two suspect locations are indeed infected by the group A and type H5N1 flu virus," Dovonou said.

Benin's eastern neighbor, Nigeria, has been one of the countries worst affected by bird flu in the region, reporting sub-Saharan Africa's first confirmed human death from the disease early this year.

Its western neighbor, Togo, declared its first outbreak of the most deadly strain of avian influenza in June and has since found new cases.