Nigeria's neighbours have imposed bans on poultry imports from the West African country today in an effort to prevent the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus from spreading across their borders.
Niger and Chad, the countries closest to the H5N1 outbreak detected this week in northern Nigeria; Cameroon to the east; and Ghana to the west all announced emergency measures to block the import of Nigerian poultry and poultry products.
But their governments admitted they could be hard pressed to prevent contamination through bustling cross-border trade routes from Nigeria, the site of the first reported H5N1 virus case in Africa.
It was found this week in chickens in northern states of Nigeria, where thousands of birds have died.
Transfer of poultry and poultry products between regions in Niger was also prohibited.
Experts say Africa, the world's poorest continent where millions live in close contact with chickens and other domestic birds, runs a serious risk of human infection from the disease.
Bird flu has killed at least 88 people and infected 166 since it re-emerged in late 2003. Most of the victims have been in east Asia so far.