Algeria declares state of emergency over bird flu

By Abdurrazzak Abdullah

ALGIERS, Algeria (AA)- Algeria declared a state of emergency after World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)'s announcement of H5N8 bird flu outbreak in the country's east, said Minister of Agriculture Abdelhamid Hamdani Tuesday.

In a press conference, Hamdani said: “The source of this virus is migratory birds and we [Algeria] have put all regions on alert in anticipation of any emergency.”

He stressed that “the epidemic was contained in Ain Fakroun town which appeared in there.”

On Tuesday, OIE detected a bird flu hotspot in Ain Fakroun town of Oum El Bouaghi city.

Laboratory analyses revealed the spread of bird flu in the town, which infected 51,200 chickens before isolating the town.

The risk of humans potentially contracting the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus cannot be excluded, although the likelihood is low, according to the World Health Organization.

*Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara