Dr Gideon Mshelbwala, the Director of Veterinary and Pest Control Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development raised the alert at a meeting with state Commissioners of Agriculture in Abuja on Friday.

According to him, the seven states affected by the outbreak to include:

Bauchi
Kaduna
Kano
Katsina
Nasarawa
Plateau
FCT

Mshelbwala said that the way forward to the containment of the disease was to ban importation of poultry and products, quarantine and bio-security measures, among others.

He also warned poultry farmers against illegal vaccination of birds, saying that it was a deadly alternative to the control of the disease.