Togo has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus on a guinea fowl farm, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Thursday.
The virus near the capital Lome killed 1,105 of the 3,000 guinea fowl at the farm. The remaining healthy birds are being slaughtered, the OIE said, citing a report from Togo authorities. In July, Togo killed over 800 birds after an H5N1 bird flu outbreak.
Bird flu has been spreading in Europe, Asia and Africa. The only solution governments have when bird flu is detected in an area is to kill all animals around the infected animals. This sometimes results in mass killings.
In the first ten months of this year, there were 2947 outbreaks with almost 43 million animals, sick and healthy, killed.
Bird flu is occasionally transmitted from birds to humans and can lead to death. An increased number of human bird flu cases in China this year has experts worried.
The Animal Reader is a small, independent news platform with daily posts about issues affecting animals.
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