Avian Flu Update

[Annie]

Links at site:



http://instapundit.com/archives/029374.php

March 27, 2006

AVIAN FLU UPDATE: A worrisome report:

The spread of avian influenza to at least 29 new countries in the last seven weeks — one of the biggest outbreaks of the virus since it emerged nine years ago — is prompting a sobering reassessment of the strategy that has guided efforts to contain the disease. . . .

The speed of its migration, and the vast area it has infected, has forced scientists to concede there is little that can be done to stop its spread across the globe.

"We expected it to move, but not any of us thought it would move quite like this," said Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations' coordinator on bird flu efforts.

Even if bird flu never mutates into a human-transmissible form, this should be a wakeup call about our preparedness for pandemics generally. The good news is that people seem to be noticing. One datum: Our podcast interview with Bill Frist on the subject is our most popular so far, with over 330,000 downloads. Interestingly, a much higher percentage of them are the lo-fi dialup variety than for our other episodes; I'm not sure what that means, but I'm guessing that there's more international interest in the topic.
posted at 10:26 AM by Glenn Reynolds

 

[waltky]

H5N6 spreading from farm fowl to wildlife...

Bird flu virus spreading in South Korea from farm to wildlife
Dec. 6, 2016 - Investigators recently identified the H5N6 virus among migratory birds.

Cases of bird flu are growing in South Korea where at least six farms have reported the presence of the H5N6 virus. Another cluster of infections was confirmed near a chicken farm in Haenam, South Jeolla Province, South Korean news service Newsis reported Tuesday. The farm in Haenam has already been designated an infected site, but the pathogen is also spreading among migratory birds in a nearby habitat in Kumho Lake, according to the report.

Provincial authorities conducted an investigation on Nov. 30 of 40 birds from the wildlife habitat. Results showed two Eurasian teals and one spoonbill carrying the H5N6 virus. South Korean investigators will know by Wednesday whether the confirmed presence of the virus poses the risk of an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. A different strain of the virus, the H5N1, known to cause the Asian Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, has proven to be fatal for poultry, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus can infect humans, and some infections have resulted in deaths, but human-to-human spread is rare, according to the CDC. The farm near the lake was confirmed an infected site on Nov. 18 and is located less than 10 miles from the wildlife sanctuary. All six farms that have reported outbreaks are located in Sani-myeon, a district in South Jeolla Province. Authorities said they have conducted clinical examinations of 210,000 chickens and ducks but no further infections were found. South Jeolla Province is planning a disinfection of the area.

Bird flu virus spreading in South Korea from farm to wildlife

 

[waltky]

H5N9 bird flu strain in southwest France...

France reports another bird flu strain in southwest
December 16, 2016 - France has detected H5N9 avian influenza among poultry in the southwest of the country, an official report showed on Friday, the third strain of bird flu to be confirmed this month in the region known for its foie gras production.

Bird flu has spread across Europe in recent weeks, prompting preventative slaughtering of poultry or confinement of flocks indoors. In Asia, meanwhile, the rapid spread of a different strain of the disease has led South Korea to order the culling of millions of birds. Two outbreaks of low pathogenic H5N9 bird flu were confirmed in the past week among poultry in the Gers administrative department, France's agriculture ministry said in a report posted online by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). This led to the slaughtering of 970 birds out of 1,870 at risk in the outbreaks, the report showed.

A duck is seen in its enclosure at a poultry farm in Doazit, Southwestern France​

The Gers this month also saw the first case of H5N1 in France in the current wave of bird flu. It is also one of several areas of southwestern France to be affected by the highly contagious H5N8 strain. Twenty seven outbreaks of H5N8 bird flu have been confirmed on farms in the southwest, the agriculture ministry said in an update on its website on Friday. The spread of the disease is a setback for French poultry producers recovering from an epidemic a year ago that hit the foie gras industry, which uses goose and duck liver to make the specialty.

France reports another bird flu strain in southwest

 

[waltky]

Bird flu in Africa...

Uganda detects bird flu in wild, domestic birds
January 15, 2017 - Uganda's ministry for agriculture said on Sunday it had detected bird flu in two locations, one affecting wild birds and another hitting domestic birds, but it did not say whether it was a strain that has spread across Europe and the Middle East.

The H5N8 strain, which is deadly for poultry but has not been found in humans, has spread in Europe and the Middle East since late last year, leading to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of farmed birds and the confinement of flocks indoors. China has reported human infections of the H7N9 strain of the virus, resulting in fatalities.

Uganda's Agriculture, Industry and Fisheries Ministry said in a statement that in-country tests had identified "the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), that affects both humans and animals and which causes (a) high number of deaths in both species." But the statement did not indentify the strain.

Fishermen on Jan. 2 had reported the "mass death of wild birds" on the shores of Lake Victoria, near Entebbe, which lies near the capital. Tests proved positive. On Jan. 13 five domestic ducks and a hen in Masaka, to the west of Kampala, were also found to be infected.

Uganda detects bird flu in wild, domestic birds

 

[Wyatt earp]

Bird flu in Africa...

Uganda detects bird flu in wild, domestic birds
January 15, 2017 - Uganda's ministry for agriculture said on Sunday it had detected bird flu in two locations, one affecting wild birds and another hitting domestic birds, but it did not say whether it was a strain that has spread across Europe and the Middle East.

The H5N8 strain, which is deadly for poultry but has not been found in humans, has spread in Europe and the Middle East since late last year, leading to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of farmed birds and the confinement of flocks indoors. China has reported human infections of the H7N9 strain of the virus, resulting in fatalities.

Uganda's Agriculture, Industry and Fisheries Ministry said in a statement that in-country tests had identified "the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), that affects both humans and animals and which causes (a) high number of deaths in both species." But the statement did not indentify the strain.

Fishermen on Jan. 2 had reported the "mass death of wild birds" on the shores of Lake Victoria, near Entebbe, which lies near the capital. Tests proved positive. On Jan. 13 five domestic ducks and a hen in Masaka, to the west of Kampala, were also found to be infected.

Uganda detects bird flu in wild, domestic birds

You have to be a Annie sock

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[badger2]

13 Jan 2017 Ukraine, Slovakia: H5N8 in poultry and wild swan. See www. for OiE Dr. Olga Shevchenko

 

[waltky]

China withholding avian flu samples...

China withholding avian flu samples
Mon, Sep 03, 2018 - GOOD PARTNER:The CDC has provided the US with samples from last year’s case of a patient who contracted a mutated form of the H7N9 virus that was resistant to drugs

China has refused requests from the US and other fellow WHO members for more than a year to provide lab samples from its outbreak of H7N9 avian influenza last year, in contravention of the organization’s regulations, while non-member Taiwan has shared its sole mutated strain of the H7N9 virus with researchers in the US. WHO regulations stipulate that member states should provide samples and information about diseases that could become pandemic, but media reports say Beijing has been refusing repeated requests made by the US and others, even though this particular strain has killed 40 percent of the people who contracted it, the New York Times reported on Monday last week. The Times said some US scientists are worried that US-China trade tensions could slow the exchange of medical supplies and information, thereby impeding efforts to prepare for potential biological threats. At least four US research institutions have been relying on a small group of H7N9 samples from cases in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the newspaper said.

The H7N9 avian influenza “had not previously been seen in either animals or people until it was found in March 2013 in China,” the WHO says on its Web site. Since then there have been at least six epidemic waves of human infection and hundreds of deaths. The samples that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have been sharing with the US come from a 69-year-old Taiwanese businessman who in February last year was diagnosed with H7N9 after returning from China and later died. What made his case different was that an analysis of the H7N9 strain he had contracted showed that a mutation had developed, the CDC said at the time. The mutated virus was highly pathogenic in birds, and resistant to oseltamivir, zanamivir and other antiviral medications, it said. “We believe that providing this information to the world is very important, thus [we] released it on the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data Web site,” CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said on Saturday.

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Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo is pictured in Taipei​

A sample of the virus strain is still stored at the agency’s biological material storage facility, Lo added. This was a good example of cooperation between Taiwan and the US, Lo said. However, the sample Taiwan provided was not enough to develop a vaccine, so more samples are needed to create a vaccine suitable for humans, he said. The mutated H7N9 virus is a level-three biohazard, the same level as SARS, anthrax and mycobacterium tuberculosis, and second only to level four biohazards such as the Ebola virus, Lo said. In related news, the Council of Agriculture on Friday said that it has intercepted pork being smuggled in from China 292 times over the past month.

The Statute for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease stipulates that those convicted of smuggling pork can face fines from NT$3,000 to NT$15,000, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Deputy Director-General Shih Tai-hua (施泰華) said yesterday. The bureau has tested 24 samples from the confiscated pork for the African swine fever virus, and the results would be known this week, Shih said. If any of the samples test positive for the virus, the bureau might seek heavier penalties for smugglers, but it is still in discussions with judicial authorities about which article of the law would apply for such cases, Shih said.

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