The Agriculture Ministry has announced a ban on poultry importation from Burkina Faso where an outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed.

The ministry has also intensified surveillance along the country’s borders in a bid to prevent a possible outbreak of the avian influenza disease.

The disease is reported to have killed 200,000 hens and 2,000 guinea fowls in Burkina Faso by April 13, 2015.

An outbreak of the disease has been confirmed in Nigeria too.

Poultry farmers in the country are asking government to do more to protect them against the outbreak of the disease.

Chairman of the Poultry Farmers Association in an interview with Joy News asked that the country’s bio-security system be checked to ensure that in case of an outbreak farmers and consumers are protected.

Most human contractions of the avian flu are a result of either handling dead infected birds or from contact with infected fluids.

While most wild birds mainly have only a mild form of the H5N1 strain, once domesticated birds such as chickens or turkeys are hardest hit and could become much more deadly because the birds are often within close contact of one another.