(Business in Cameroon) - 25,000 chickens. This is the number of birds killed since 13 Mars in poultry farms in the town of Foumbot, located in the Noun district, Western Cameroon, local sources declare. These slaughterhouse operations, we learned, follow the discovery of the H5N1 bird flu virus on dead chickens in the farms of Mr Charles Tsagué and Jean Meli, two poultry farmers of the area.

Following the revelation of the results of the tests carried out on these chickens by the Yaoundé veterinarian laboratory extension, the Governor of the Western region, Awa Fonka Augustin, even signed on 17 March 2017, a decree prohibiting the sale and movement of poultry in the Noun district. Farm cleaning operations are also underway.

The Western region, main chicken production area in Cameroon, is thus going through its 3^rd bird flu epidemic in less than a year. To the great displeasure of poultry farmers, who had already announced losses of about FCfa 16 billion at the end of the May 2016 epidemic, which broke out in the capital of the country, before spreading to several regions in Cameroon, including in the West.

BRM