The Director of Veterinary and Pest Control Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Gideon Mshelbwala, 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
Kaduna
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.