CIDRAP: H5N1 turns up at Benin poultry market

This story didn't make the usual media, but CIDRAP spotted it in a recent OIE report: H5N1 turns up at Benin poultry market. Excerpt:

Agriculture officials in Benin recently reported that two chickens at a live poultry market tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus, the country's first outbreak since the virus was detected there at the end of 2007.

Authorities found the virus during routine surveillance at a market in Lokossa, the capital of Mono department, located in the southern part of the country near the coast, according to an Aug 25 report from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

Testing performed at Benin's national laboratory in Parakou revealed H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza, according to the report. The surveillance activity at the Lokossa market was also a training exercise for the lab's managers and officials, the OIE report said. In December 2007, when the country confirmed its first H5N1 outbreak, the samples were tested at an Italian lab.

Animal health officials have not determined the source of the outbreak, according to the report. Authorities disinfected market stalls and have restricted the movement of poultry within the country.

The full story has a link to the OIE report and to a CIDRAP story on Benin's first outbreak, last December.