Bird Flu - Avian Influenza - news - information

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Indonesian man dies of bird flu, toll up to 98

JAKARTA, Jan 24 (Reuters) - A 30-year-old Indonesian man who had tested positive for bird flu died on Thursday, the health ministry said, taking the country’s death toll from the virus to 98.

The man, from Tangerang west of Jakarta, died at the Persahabatan hospital after being treated for a week, said Sunan Raja, an official at the ministry’s bird flu information center.

It was not known how the man contracted the disease.

Source for bird flu story: Reuters

Admin’s Note: The is an update to the following story Indonesian man infected with bird flu brings country’s total to 120(confirmed infections)

Bird flu strikes again in northern Thailand

BANGKOK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The H5N1 bird flu virus has re-emerged in a northern Thai province for the first time since March last year, forcing the slaughter of 10,000 chickens, an Agriculture Ministry official said on Thursday.

The outbreak occurred on a farm in Nakhon Sawan, 240 km (149 miles) north of Bangkok, where the owner reported 4,085 chickens had died earlier this month, senior Livestock Department official Nirundorn Aungtragoolsuk told Reuters.

“The H5N1 virus was found on the farm and we have culled the rest of them,” he said of the birds slaughtered in one of four closed chicken houses on the farm.

The others house 45,000 chickens which had shown no signs of the deadly avian influenza virus, he said.

Avian influenza story source: Reuters

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

India’s Avian Flu Outbreak Is `Serious,’ WHO Says- (new outbreaks)

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg)—An outbreak of avian flu in India’s West Bengal state is ``serious’’ and the virus has spread rapidly to many districts, the World Health Organization’s representative said.

The outbreak is the 10th in India since the H5N1 avian influenza virus was first reported to have killed poultry there in February 2006. No human cases have been recorded in India.

India has the capacity to handle the situation as the ``fundamentals of planning are sound,’’ S.J. Habayeb, the organization’s representative in the South Asian nation, said in an interview conducted over e-mail.

The disease has spread to more districts in West Bengal, taking the total number to nine, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said in New Delhi today. ``We are trying to control the situation.’’

The government has culled 242,000 chickens since the disease was reported among poultry Jan. 15 in the eastern state, the agriculture ministry has said.

As many as 113,796 chickens have died from the virus, the ministry said in a release. Samples from six districts have tested negative. About 258 teams have been deployed for culling and surveillance operations in West Bengal, the ministry added.

`Backyard Culling’

``The main problem we are facing is culling in the backyards,’’ Anisur Rahman, West Bengal’s animal resources minister, said in a telephone interview from the state capital of Kolkata, also known as Calcutta. ``In other places, where the disease was reported, the farmers carried their poultry to a central farm in a village. Here, volunteers have to go to each house and convince farmers to do the culling.’’

The teams, working in the villages, have gone up from 400 to 650 today, Rahman said.

``Culling is going on at a rapid pace,’’ he said. ``At the same time, we are faced with a situation where poultry is being tested positive from new areas which are far-flung.’’

Bird flu story source: Bloomberg News

Bird flu kills man in northern Vietnam, first human case this year

HANOI, Vietnam - Bird flu has killed a man in northern Vietnam, marking the country’s first human case this year, health officials said Wednesday.

The 32-year-old man from Tuyen Quang province, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Hanoi, died last week, two days after being admitted to the national tropical disease hospital in Hanoi, said To Doan Hong of the provincial Preventive Medicine Center.

Test results later came back positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus, he said. It was the country’s 48th death reported since the virus began raging across Asia in late 2003.

Nguyen Huy Nga, director of the Ministry of Health’s Preventive Medicine Department, confirmed the results.

Hong said the man developed bird flu symptoms after slaughtering and cooking six geese and two chickens that had died at his backyard farm Jan. 9. Tests on poultry also came back positive for the H5N1 virus.

“Specimens taken from his family members and neighbors have been tested negative for the bird flu virus,” Hong said.

“We have disinfected his house and areas in the neighborhood.”

Health officials have warned the increased movement of people and poultry combined with cool weather could help spread the virus prior to the Lunar New Year festivities that begin Feb. 7.

Tuyen Quang and the northern province Thai Nguyen, along with the central province Quang Binh and southern Tra Vinh remain on the government’s bird flu watch list.

Source for bird flu story: The Canadian Press

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Strain of Bird flu found in Turkey is H5N1 strain

This is an update to the previous story found here: Bird flu outbreak in Turkey

A spokesman for the Turkish Agriculture ministry has confirmed that the bird flu virus found in a village in northern Turkey is the H5N1 strain.

Spokesman Tunc Tuncel, confirmed during an interview that it indeed was the H5N1 strain of the virus.

He also said, ‘But we believe that it has not spread to any humans,’ and that preventive measures are already in place.

Avian flu story link: Thompson Financial

Indonesian man infected with bird flu brings country’s total to 120

Jan. 22, - The Indonesian health ministry is reporting that a 30 year old man near Jakarta has tested positive for the bird flu virus.

Joko Suyono, from the anti-bird flu center said that the man from Tanggerang town was treated at a hospital in Persahabatan set-up to handle human avian flu cases in east Jakarta since January 18.

“Two of his laboratories tests show positive today,” Suyono told Xinhua. The man did not have historical contact with fowl like many other victims of the disease, said the official.

On January 20 the man indicated symptoms of high fever, respiratory problems, leucopenia, thrombocytopenic, and pneumonia, said Suyono.

The man first showed the symptoms of the disease at January 14 and went to a hospital in the town before he was shifted to the hospital in east Jakarta, said the official.

Sources used in this bird flu story: Xinhua

Turkish officials report bird flu outbreak in Village

Jan 22 - Turkish authorities are reporting that the bird flu virus has infected chickens in a village in the northern Black Sea region.

Authorities are unsure if it’s the H5N1 form of the virus.

The virus was found among dead chickens that were collected from Saz village in Zonguldak province on Saturday and following examinations the bird flu virus was detected, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

“All necessary measures have been taken around Saz village,” it said without giving details.

In an interview on Kanal 24 television, Muzaffer Aydemir, the Agriculture Ministry’s General Director of Protection and Control, said that the village has been put
under quarantine and all animal trade in the area has been halted.

He said the authorities had not begun culling poultry in the region because the case looks like a limited one.

“This is a very limited case. Only spotted in chickens of a citizen who hunts wild birds. We are sure that the virus passed to the chickens from wild birds,” Aydemir said.

He said the area surrounding the village was disinfected, but no other cases have been reported so far.

Consumers should not stop buying poultry products, he said and 12 teams of veterinary and other experts were working in the area to stop the disease spreading.

Source used in this avian influenza story: Reuters

Friday, January 18, 2008

Bird flu strain claims fifth swan

A fifth swan at a sanctuary in Dorset has tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu, environment department Defra has said.

The first case of avian influenza was found at the Abbotsbury Swannery, near Chesil Beach, on 10 January.

John Houston, general manager, said: “We are expecting to have a run of positives and negatives while [the virus] works its way through the herd.”

Restrictions on the movement of birds, imposed last week, remain in place.

Earlier, Defra said there was currently no evidence to suggest the disease was widespread among wild birds in the area, but officials were closely monitoring the situation.

Mr Houston said: “There are still four or five dead swans which have been picked up - and for which there are no test results as of yet.”

International importance

He said Defra staff and staff from the swannery had so far taken swabs from about 60 mute swans at the swannery.

They are hoping to establish whether the birds are building up resistance to the outbreak.

The swannery will be given the all-clear if no birds test positive for the virus after 21 days.

The swannery is part of an area of wetland recognized to be of international importance.

The Health Protection Agency has monitored about 12 staff at the swannery for signs of the disease, although the risk of infection is said to be low.

Workers have been given a course of anti-viral drug Tamiflu as a precaution.

Bird flu story link: BBC News

Iran detects new bird flu outbreak

TEHERAN (AFP) — Iranian veterinary authorities have detected a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus among migratory and indigenous birds in the north of the country, the ISNA news agency reported on Friday.

“The strain of highly pathogenic bird flu that had been detected among migratory swans in ponds at Anzali has been discovered among wild geese and ducks around lakes in Barzanghib and among local birds,” veterinary chief Mojtaba Norouzi was quoted as saying.

“All the chickens in the neighboring village have been destroyed,” Norouzi said, adding a warning against people hunting birds in the area.

Norouzi said no cases of bird flu had been found among farm birds.

Avian influenza story link: AFP

Indonesian boy dies of bird flu - 97th

JAKARTA, Jan 18 (Reuters) - An eight-year-old Indonesian boy died of bird flu on Friday, the health ministry said, bringing the country’s death toll from the virus to 97.

The boy from Tangerang, west of the capital Jakarta, died after being treated for one day at the country’s main bird flu treatment center, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement.

The ministry said the fact the boy’s neighbor ran a chicken slaughterhouse was a risk factor and it was investigating.

Bird flu story source: Reuters