Lab tests have confirmed the presence of bird flu in three more Nigerian states including in an area close to the capital Abuja, the government said on Monday according to Reuters. The new confirmed cases were found in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in central Nigeria and in the northern states of Zamfara and Katsina, which border Kaduna state where one of the first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain was confirmed on Feb. 8. The government did not say if the new reports were the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. "Extensive diagnostic tests have been conducted and are ongoing amongst poultry workers nationwide and to date no human cases have been recorded in Nigeria," Information Minister Frank Nweke said in a statement. Nweke said birds in the affected farms in Katsina, Zamfara and the FCT were being culled. The virus poses a major health risk in Nigeria because chickens run free in millions of backyards and are carried live in public transport. Detecting any human case will be difficult because mortality rates are high from other diseases and health services are almost non-existent in rural areas, where people are often buried without a medical check. --more 21 45 Local Time 18 45 GMT
