BANJUL (Reuters) – Gambian authorities have detected the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu on a wild bird reserve, the ministry of agriculture said in a statement seen by Reuters on Thursday, less than one week after neighbouring Senegal reported an outbreak of the disease on a poultry farm.
Samples were collected from Gambia’s Tanji Bird Reserve, around 20 kilometres from the capital Banjul, after several wild birds were reported dead.
The samples were sent to a laboratory in Dakar on April 1 and tested positive for High Pathogenicity Avian influenza (HPAI) type H5N1, said the statement, which was issued on Wednesday.
Authorities “are closely working together to help reduce the infection pressure at the wild bird level while working… to prevent the spill over to our poultry,” it added.
Gambia is almost entirely surrounded by Senegal, which reported an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu on a poultry farm in the northwestern part of the country last Friday.
Senegalese authorities also detected the disease among wild birds last month.
(Reporting by Pap Saine; writing by Sofia Christensen; editing by Alexander Winning and Jason Neely)
