H5N1 in Wild birds
Hong Kong. The black-crowned night heron found dead on Jan 28 was infected with H5N1. In addition, the Mai Po bird sanctuary will be closed to the puiblic for three weeks following the discovery of a great egret (Casmerodius albus) which is suspected of dying from bird flu. The bird has tested positive for H5 avian influenza and further testing is in progress. The reserve was also closed in December following the discovery of a grey heron infected with H5N1. In 2006, a total of 21 wild birds infected with H5N1 were detected in Hong Kong.
Bangladesh. Bird flu has spread to the capital Dhaka. “Dozens” of crows found dead over the last two days have tested positive for H5N1, the city’s authorities said. Authorities at the city’s zoo have beefed up biosecurity measures. Visitors must walk through an antiseptic footbath and bird cages are sprayed with disinfectants twice a day. Almost 10,000 people go through the park each day, but the Dhaka Zoo lake has little migratory bird traffic at this time of year, according to the deputy Curator of the Zoo, AKM Nazrul Islam. The zoo has 1,220 birds of 58 species in its collection.
H5N1 in Poultry
Bangladesh. The port city of Chittagong is on high alert following the detection of H5N1 in dead crows. On Feb. 6, officials confirmed that the virus was detected in several farms and in additional crows in the city. Bird flu has spread to two new districts, Bagerhat and Kushtia. Over 3,000 birds and 2,385 eggs were destroyed in Saralia village in the southern district of Bagerhat following detection of bird flu. Some 900 chickens on a poultry farm died on Feb. 3 and samples collected tested positive. A total of 36 districts have been affected.
India. The animal resources minister for West Bengal, Anisur Rahaman, says that culling efforts to contain the worse bird flu outbreak in India’s history are concluding. Nearly three million poultry have been destroyed by 5,000 workers in 800 teams working to contain the outbreak. As cullers finished their work, they were asked to self quarantine themselves before returning home. The culling operation was extended for two days, Feb. 3 and 4, announced Rahaman, because fresh cases of bird flu were reported in the Canning Block II of South 24 Parganas district. Precautionary culls will be performed in two districts in Assam province, adjacent to Parganas, but have not yet started in Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.
Pakistan. H5N1 has been detected at a poultry farm on the outskirts of Karachi. Dr. Ali Akbar Soomro said that the National Reference Laboratory for animal testing in Islamabad had detected both Newcastle Disease virus and H5N1. The general secretary of the Karachi Wholesale Poultry Association said that 5,500 chickens died at the farm, and the 500 that survived have been culled. Tests of birds in farms in the area have been negative. Workers on the farm and those on an adjacent farm will be monitored for possible infection with bird flu, an official with the Sindh provincial government said. Meanwhile, a new outbreak on a farm located less than 300 mi from where H5N1 was detected last week was announced Feb. 11 by Food and Agriculture Ministry official Rafiq-ul-Hassan Usmani. The farm was operated by the country’s security forces. Over 500 chickens died on the farm of 5,000 birds and tests have detected H5N1.
Turkey. Authorities are afraid that a case of bird flu may have occurred in a village near the Black Sea city of Samsun after several dead chickens tested positive for avian influenza. It is not clear if it is H5N1 as yet, but according to Reuters, the Agriculture Ministry’s statement said that studies showed the virus was transmitted from wild birds to the farm chickens. A 10 km protection and observation zone has been set up, and 37 birds on eight small farms in the area have been culled. Samsun is located 350 km east of Saz, the village where H5N1 was detected last month.
H5N1 in Humans
Indonesia. A 29-year-old woman from Tangerang, who had been treated for about a week, died from bird flu, the health ministry said. According to the World Health Organization, she developed symptoms on Jan 22, was hospitalized on Jan 28 and died on Feb 2. It is unclear how she became infected, but she had visited her parents recently and her neighbors kept poultry. She is the eighth person to die of bird flu in Indonesia this year, bringing the total number of bird flu fatalities to 103. The health ministry also announced that a 38-year-old woman being treated at Persahabatan Hospital has tested positive for bird flu, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 126. She developed symptoms on Jan 24, and was hospitalized two days later. Her condition is said to be critical.
Indonesian officials say they are baffled by the mysterious behavior of the H5N1 virus in their country. The virus is considered endemic in all of Indonesia’s 33 provinces with the exception of Gorontalo and North Maluku. A study by the FAO indicates that poultry for sale in traditional markets in western Java, which includes Jakarta, have a high incidence of infection. “In some of the cases we found the virus in the water and chickens, but in many other cases the studies showed no signs of the virus in the surroundings,” said the Ministry of Agriculture Bird Flu Control Unit’s Tjahjani Widjastuti at a briefing on Feb. 5.
H5N1 in the Scientific Literature
- Carraro, E. et al., 2008. Influenza detection and subtyping by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism for laboratory surveillance in Brazil. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis Ahead of print.
- White LF, and Pagano M. 2008. Transmissibility of the influenza virus in the 1918 pandemic. PLoS ONE 3:e1498.
- Worobey, M., 2008. Phylogenetic evidence against evolutionary stasis and natural abiotic reservoirs of influenza A virus. J Virol. Ahead of print.
- Writing Committee of the Second World Health Organization Consultation on Clinical Aspects of Human Infection with Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Virus. 2008. Update on avian influenza A (H5N1) virus infection in humans. N Engl J Med 358:261-273.
