Bird Flu - Avian Influenza - news - information

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

France’s Agriculture Ministry confirms bird flu in deaths of two swans

METZ, France—Two swans found dead in eastern France died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

The two swans were found dead Sunday night not far from the location where three swans were killed by the virus earlier this month.

The swans were found in an area known as Diane Capelle, in the Moselle region, some 15 kilometers from the site where three swans died of bird flu in early July.

Moselle’s prefecture extended measures to protect domestic fowl from wild birds that had been put in place after the first case of swan deaths, the statement said.

Bird flu story source: Mainichi news VIA AP

Vietnamese woman has bird flu - report

HANOI (Reuters) - A 22-year-old Vietnamese woman has caught bird flu, the country’s first human case since early June, and taken to a Hanoi hospital, state media reported on Tuesday.

Laboratory tests in Vietnam showed the woman from a farm in the northern province of Ha Tay, the largest poultry supplier to Hanoi, was confirmed to have the H5N1 virus, the Saigon Giai Phong (Liberation Saigon) reported.

She was breathing on a respirator, the newspaper quoted doctors treating her as saying but gave no further details.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not confirmed the latest infection.

Bird flu story source: Reuters

UPDATE: The woman died Saturday after being admitted a week before for treatment, said a source at a Hanoi hospital who asked not to be named.

“Tests were positive for the H5N1 virus,” the source said, adding that the woman had been seven months pregnant.

Bird flu update link: AFP

Thursday, July 26, 2007

India Confirms Outbreak of Bird Flu as Deadly H5N1 Strain

Officials in India have confirmed the latest outbreak of bird flu in poultry in the country’s remote northeast is the deadly H5N1 strain.

Government officials said Thursday that plans are underway to slaughter 150,000 chickens within a five kilometer radius near the affected farm in the northeastern state of Manipur.

Health workers are also checking for flu-like symptoms in thousands of nearby residents.

Earlier this month, more than 130 chickens were found dead on the remote farm.

Manipur is on the border with Burma, which has seen outbreaks of bird flu this year.

Bird flu story source: VOA

Monday, July 23, 2007

Egyptian woman diagnosed with bird flu

CAIRO (AFP) - A 25-year-old woman from northern Egypt has been diagnosed as having contracted the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, the health ministry announced on Sunday.

Naima Abdu Gamil from the coastal town of Damietta went to her local hospital Saturday complaining of high temperature, ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen told the official MENA news agency.

She was diagnosed as having contracted bird flu and was sent to Cairo where she is being treated with Tamiflu, he said.

Gamil had been working with domestic poultry which had exhibited symptoms of the disease. Others in her family are now being tested.

She became the 38th case of the virus reported in Egypt since the first outbreak was announced in February 2006.

Egypt’s geographical location on major bird migration routes and the widespread practice of keeping domestic fowl near living quarters have led to it being the hardest-hit country outside of Asia.

The government says it is conducting a vigorous campaign to combat the spread of the virus through vaccinations and raising awareness, but cases continue to appear.

Bird flu story source: AFP

Thursday, July 19, 2007

White House Releases One-Year Progress Report of Flu Pandemic Plan

The White House Homeland Security Council has released a one-year progress report on its efforts to implement a national strategic plan to guard the United States against a pandemic flu outbreak.

Council officials said on Tuesday that they have completed 86 percent of the action items detailed in the plan, which the Bush administration launched last May, and expect to fulfill the remaining goals in six months.

There are an average of three widespread flu pandemics each century, most recently in 1918, according to Dr. Rajeev Venkayya, the President’s assistant for biological defense. Should the next flu pandemic be as highly pathogenic as it was in the last century, the government estimates that 90 million Americans would fall ill and as many as two million would die, according to Council materials.

Venkayya said the 1918 pandemic killed 2 percent of the global population — about 20 to 40 million individuals worldwide.

Throughout the year, the government has worked on influenza issues in more than 100 countries, supported the training of more than 129,000 animal health workers and 17,000 human health workers in bird flu surveillance and outbreak response, and has aided efforts to improve laboratory diagnosis and early warning networks in 75 countries, Venkayya said. The United States has taken the lead in the international preparedness campaign, contributing $440 million of the $2.3 billion raised, he said.

Currently, the nation has 6 million doses of a pre-pandemic vaccine that was approved in April, said Adm. John Agwunobi, assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, adding that initial clinical studies suggest that supply can be stretched 10 to 20 times.

Council officials said they would not close the country’s borders in the event of a flu pandemic because of the logistical difficulty, and said instead that authorities would try to limit the number of virus carriers who enter the country.

“The reality is that there are tremendous challenges to sealing our borders to begin with,” Venkayya said. “We believe, and scientists concur, that if a pandemic virus emerges anywhere on the globe, it is inevitable that it will arrive here in the U.S., irrespective of the actions that we take at the borders.”

The Council said it plans to unveil an agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada to cooperatively address border issues and the risk of a pandemic spreading throughout North America.

Going forward, officials said efforts have to be redoubled to develop “real-time” clinical surveillance, and said there have been challenges in this area.

“To be brutally honest, we have a lot of trouble determining when we have an outbreak of infectious disease in a community here in the United States.”

Also among the Council’s action items is helping to create a “surge capacity” in U.S. hospitals, aid the international community in vaccine development and production and better equip and prepare local governments and health care entities.

Bird flu story source: Congressional Quarterly

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Bird flu spreads to northwest Bangladesh

DHAKA, July 15 (Reuters) - Bird flu has spread to another district in Bangladesh forcing health and veterinary workers to cull 2,000 chickens, officials said on Sunday.

The latest case was reported from a village in Naogaon district, 250 km (156 miles) northwest of the capital, Dhaka, said a senior officer of the fisheries and livestock ministry.

Bird flu story source: Reuters‘ alertnet

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Turkey flock in VA infected with low grade bird flu virus. Poultry events in state cancelled

Officials with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services determined that a turkey flock in Shenandoah County tested suspicious for antibodies of presumed low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI).  Testing over the weekend by the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa confirmed the presence of H5 avian influenza antibodies.  NVSL has not yet identified the actual virus that caused the birds to produce the antibodies.

The farm is under quarantine and the birds are awaiting depopulation.  State and federal officials and the poultry industry are increasing surveillance within a six-mile radius of the affected farm and have enhanced already strict biosecurity.

On July 9, the State Veterinarian issued a Cancellation Order prohibiting all public shows and sales in Virginia and banning the movement of poultry litter, manure and bedding in 17 counties.

Bird flu story source: VA government

Poultry festival canceled after bird flu found in Va. (West VA festival)

West Virginia’s annual poultry festival was canceled after the state was placed under a 30-day order suspending all poultry shows and sales following the discovery of avian influenza in a Virginia turkey flock.

Although the virus has not been found in West Virginia, the state Poultry Association decided Monday to cancel the five-day festival because area poultry farmers attending the festival might unwittingly transport the virus to other farmers, said Emily Funk, the association’s executive secretary.

“When we have an avian outbreak like this we try not to get together,” she said. “Try not to go to the grocery store. We try not to associate with each other.”

The festival is held in Moorefield, which will go ahead with its carnival and golf tournament for nonfarming residents. What will be missing are the beauty pageant and various education dinners and activities sponsored by the association, she said.

It’s at least the second time since the 1980s that the festival has been canceled, she said.

State Agriculture Commissioner Gus Douglass said the low pathogenicity avian influenza found in a turkey flock in Mt. Jackson, Va., about 71 miles southeast of Moorefield, is not the same as the bird flu found in Southeast Asia, Europe and other countries.

Bird flu story source: Charleston Daily Mail

Monday, July 09, 2007

Japan suspends day-old chick imports from Germany

TOKYO, July 9 (Reuters) - Japan’s farm ministry has suspended imports of live day-old chicks, poultry meat and eggs for use in processing from Germany after a pet goose there tested positive for a lethal strain of avian flu, a ministry official said on Monday.

“We’ve imposed the measures due to a notice from the German Embassy confirming a non-wild bird case,” the official said.

A German government spokesman said on Monday that the authorities culled about 1,200 farm and pet birds over the weekend after the pet goose tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

H5N1 bird flu has been confirmed in a series of wild birds in Germany in the past three weeks in Thueringen, in the eastern state of Saxony and in the southern state of Bavaria.

Germany is the third-biggest exporter of day-old chicks to Japan, exporting a total 114,250 birds last year.

In 2006, Japan imported 9 tonnes of poultry meat and 1,019 tonnes of egg for processing from Germany.

Bird flu article source: Reuters (UK)

Indonesian boy dies of bird flu - health ministry

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A 6-year-old Indonesian boy died of bird flu this weekend, bringing the country’s death toll from the disease to 81, officials said on Monday.

The boy, from the city of Cilegon in Banten province, suffered from high fever and breathing difficulties before he died of multi-organ failure on Sunday, said Tuty Hendrarwardati, the spokeswoman of Jakarta’s bird flu hospital.

The victim’s family and neighbours did not have any chickens in their backyard, Hendrarwardati said.

Joko Suyono from the health ministry’s bird flu center said it was not clear how the boy got the infection.

“We are still investigating how he had contracted the virus. So far, we only know that he visited the Bandung zoo,” Suyono said.

Bird flu story source: Reuters (India)