The highly contagious avian influenza virus (bird flu) is now in Ghana after tests confirmed its presence.

There had been a recent outbreak in Burkina Faso, which even led to government implementing a ban on importing poultry from our northern neighbours, but it seems to have struck anyway.

Five out of six birds tested at the Noguchi Memorial institute for the virus proved positive, confirming its presence in Ghana.

According to myjoyonline…

“The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Research has confirmed there is Avian Influenza virus or Bird Flu in some birds in Ghana.

Out of six samples tested by the Institute, five of them proved positive for the bird flu virus, Research fellow at the Institute, Dr Kofi Odoom confirmed to Joy News’ Francisca Kakra Forson on Wednesday.

According to him, the Institute received the samples on 15 May, 2015 from two farms located in Achimota and Tema and subjected them to medical scrutiny.

The virus for now is from bird to bird he stated, adding however that the Institute is yet to conduct tests on the handlers of those birds to confirm whether or not the virus has been transferred from birds to humans.

He was quick to add that there is no cause for alarm at least for now but advised poultry farmers to keep their farms clean and report as soon as possible strange behaviour by their birds.

He said everything will be done to control the disease.”