Avian Flu - What we need to know

The latest from Europe

Romania was deemed particularly at risk of human infection, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced Friday. With bird flu reported at 31 separate sites, "Romania runs the risk of human contamination at any moment," WHO expert Guenael Rodier said at the end of a four-day inspection tour.

[...] France joined a growing list of European nations with confirmed or suspected bird flu cases when two dead ducks were discovered in a wildlife reserve north of Paris. Tests results showing whether the birds carried the H5N1 strain were expected later Friday.

A fresh avian outbreak was also reported at a poultry farm in the southern Russian province of Dagestan, the second such case in the region this week.

[...] Sales of chicken have dropped up all across Europe, threatening to throw the continent's huge poultry industry into crisis.

One sign of mounting concern was the flood of orders pouring into the world's number one manufacturer of respiratory masks in France.

Germany, the Netherlands and Slovenia joined other European nations Friday by ordering all poultry kept indoors to ensure that domestic hens, ducks and geese do not come into contact with infected wild birds.

The other countries are Denmark, France, Greece, Luxembourg and Sweden.

Source.

Europe introduces new restrictions on poultry farms

To avoid contamination of domestic animals, many countries across Europe, including Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands ordered poultry farmers to keep their flocks indoors. In Germany and Hungary, health officials set up two-mile protection zones around the spots where dead swans have been found, with all poultry required to be kept indoors and the shipping of meat outside the zones forbidden.

"For the most part, this is an animal disease," a World Health Organization official, Dick Thomson, told a German radio station, Deutsche Welle. "It is deadly to chickens and other birds, but this virus has been shown to leap to humans, which is unusual for an animal virus."

The story is from the NY Times. The article also offers some insight as to why bird flu was discovered this early in Europe:

A spokesperson for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in England, Kath Harris, said that many scientists believed that usual migrations routes has shifted because of the extremely cold weather over the past month that may have forced the swans to scatter in search of warmth.

The WSJ news tracker reports:

Greece began fining poultry farmers who have ignored instructions to keep their birds indoors, after four wild swans and a goose tested positive for the deadly virus. A farmer in the northern Halkidiki region was fined €6,000 (US$7,300) for defying the order and attempting to mislead authorities, local officials said.

Also in the WSJ you can find an article (requires subscription) by Nicholas Zamiska and Marc Champion on the situation in Europe.

Finally, its worth reading Effect Measure for some commentary on the role of migratory birds in spreading avian flu. Revere tries to reconcile two theories on how the flu spreads, concluding:

The virus makes the occasional long jump via migratory birds but primarily spreads locally via the poultry trade.

Hong Kong bans backyard poultry farming

Hong Kong banned backyard poultry farming on Tuesday to try to prevent the spread of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in birds and limit the chances of people contracting deadly bird flu.

Hong Kong government health experts have said the virus is probably endemic to southern China, despite Guangdong, the huge and prosperous province next to Hong Kong, not reporting any bird flu cases.

Lawmakers passed emergency legislation on Tuesday to stop households from rearing poultry such as chickens, ducks and geese, in an effort to tighten controls, health secretary Carrie Yau told the city's legislative council.

Anyone breaking the ban, which comes into effect on Monday without compensation for poultry handed over, can be fined up to HK$100,000 ($12,900). Owners of racing pigeons will need a licence.

Full story in this Reuters article.

The US expands embargo list

Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine are the latest countries to make the list - read the official announcement on the CDC site.

WHO: China must change farming practices

The World Health Organization's regional director said China must change its farming practices as a long-term solution to prevent outbreaks of deadly bird flu, state media said Sunday.

Shigeru Omi, director for the western Pacific region, told the official Xinhua news agency that the common practice in China of raising mixed animals and living in close proximity to animals must change, Xinhua said.

"We cannot kill all the chickens and ducks to prevent bird flu from spreading among them and to humans, therefore we have to make sure the chickens, ducks and humans do not mingle together," Omi was quoted saying.

Segregation is one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of the virus, Omi told Xinhua in an interview.

Source.

China to launch new poultry vaccine

China will begin mass-production of a new bird flu vaccine for poultry by the end of the month that could also help in the development of a vaccine to protect people, state media said on Monday.

The new vaccine -- 1 billion shots of which are expected to have been produced by year-end -- will be used alongside existing vaccines from next year, the China Daily said, quoting chief veterinarian Jia Youling.

The live vaccine, which will also work against another poultry disease, Newcastle disease, can be delivered orally, nasally or by spraying and will cost a fifth of existing inactivated vaccines, the newspaper said.

Source.

The WHO on consuming poultry

Chicken and other poultry are safe to eat if cooked properly, according to a joint statement by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) issued to national food safety authorities. However, no birds from flocks with disease should enter the food chain.

[...] Cooking of poultry (e.g. chicken, ducks, geese, turkeys and guinea-fowl) at or above 70°Celsius throughout the product, so that absolutely no meat remains raw and red, is a safe measure to kill the H5N1 virus in areas with outbreaks in poultry, FAO/WHO said. This ensures that there is no active virus remaining if the live bird has been infected and has mistakenly entered the food chain. To date, there is no epidemiological evidence that people have become infected after eating contaminated poultry meat that has been properly cooked.

Here is the WHO press release.

Skewed incentives

We have all heard stories of farmers hiding their chicken from government officials when compensation for culled birds is too low. Now this story comes out:

The farmer bought 7,000 chickens from Oct. 16 to 23. On Nov. 17, he took 12 bottles of bird flu vaccine free of charge from the government and injected the vaccine to the chickens.

On Monday, 10 days after the chickens were vaccinated, the farmer told reporters there was a bird flu outbreak at his farm, and that his chickens were dying after being injected with the vaccine.

But veterinarians found that the chickens died of malnutrition and parasites. No bird flu virus was found in the dead chickens.

Li later told police some of his chickens died before they were vaccinated. Li said he made up the bird flu story to get compensation from the government to pay for his suppliers.

Source, via H5N1.

Romania reports new cases of bird flu

"Five hens and three other dead hens in the village of Periprava, close to the border with Ukraine, tested positive for the H5 type of avian flu," the farm ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the small village, which has no road access, would be quarantined and culling of up to 1,500 domestic fowl should start soon as a precautionary move.

In a separate statement, the ministry said four suspect cases of the H5 virus in poultry had occurred in two other villages outside the delta, in the county of Braila.

It said culling of around 8,100 birds in Bumbacari and Dudescu -- which are close to the village of Scarlatesti, where a turkey tested positive for the H5 type of avian flu last week -- had started.

Source. The news comes on the national day of Romania.

UN urges countries not to cull wild birds

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) issued the warning after reports that wild birds were being killed in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam as a precautionary measure.

"This is unlikely to make any significant contribution to the protection of humans against avian influenza,"said Juan Lubroth, a FAO official with responsibility for infectious animal diseases.

"There are other, much more important measures to be considered that deserve priority attention. Fighting the disease in poultry must remain the main focus of attention," he added.

Source.