H5N1

CIDRAP: Flu news scan for January 3

Via CIDRAP: FLU NEWS SCAN: H5N1 in Nepal, H15N4 in Russia, CDC flu info for consumers. Excerpt:

In the first known identification of an H15 influenza A subtype outside of Australia, Russian and US researchers have confirmed H15N4 in a teal in Siberia, according to their report in the Journal of Virology yesterday. 

During routine surveillance from May through September 2008, investigators collected 1,445 cloacal swab samples from healthy wild birds, from which 25 avian flu viruses were isolated. One of these, from a common teal (Anas crecca), was subtyped as H15N4, the first time an H15 strain has been confirmed outside of Australia. 

Phylogenetic analysis showed that the virus's internal genes belong to the Eurasian clade, and that the H15 and N4 genes were introduced into circulating avian flu viruses through reassortment.

South Africa: Ostrich farms are not for chickens

Via the Mail & Guardian: Ostrich farms are not for chickens. Excerpt:

There are fewer than 250 000 farmed ostriches in South Africa, compared with a million at the beginning of the 1900s. 

Yet demand and prices for ostrich leather and feathers have seldom been better and ostrich meat is also increasingly sought after internationally for its health qualities which it was not in the early 1900s. 

The South African ostrich industry is a potential boom sector, but the agricultural authorities have been culling flocks at an unprecedented rate because of outbreaks of avian influenza. If the government-mandated culling of diseased birds continues at the rate of the past two years, the industry will be wiped out within a decade. 

Fifty thousand ostriches have been culled in the past 18 months, a faster rate than ever before. 

The cost to the government of culls – both in compensating farmers and in organising them – has been about R60-million in the past year alone. 

Because of an outbreak in the Klein Karoo early last year, and five subsequent infections detected, South Africa has been banned from exporting any fresh ostrich meat to its traditional and most lucrative market, the European Union (EU), resulting in a loss of around a billion rand in exports. 

About 40% of producers have already left the ostrich industry, causing an unknown number of job losses, mainly in already impoverished areas. 

In a recent statement, Gerrit van Rensburg, the Western Cape minister of agriculture and rural development, said the focus is no longer on the resumption of meat exports, but rather on the survival of the South African ostrich industry. 

What makes matters even worse is that, despite all the culling, it does not seem to work as a way to eliminate avian influenza.

South Africa: 8,000 Cape ostriches for slaughter

Via IOL News: 8 000 Cape ostriches for slaughter. Excerpt:

About 8 000 ostriches in the southern Cape are being slaughtered in a bid to stamp out a fresh outbreak of avian flu that has dogged the local ostrich industry since April last year. 

The movement of ostriches has now been banned from the Breede to the Great Brak River. 

This is despite the beleaguered industry being confident it had “sorted out” the H5N2 disease in the Western Cape and that it was a step closer to having its export status re-instated and the EU export ban lifted. 

Infected ostriches were found about two weeks ago on a farm near Albertinia and on two farms near Heidelberg. It is government policy that all ostriches are killed on farms where infected birds have been found. Farmers call it a “stamping out policy”. 

Piet Kleyn, interim CEO of the SA Ostrich Business Chamber, said on Wednesday the authorities were still slaughtering the birds in a “modified slaughter” procedure. 

“It’s a terrible thing for the whole industry. We have to look at other control measures because this stamping out is possibly not the way to go. We are discussing other measures because it is difficult to see how the stamping out policy will solve the problem,” Kleyn said. 

The feathers of the birds are retrieved and the carcasses made into fertiliser. 

Kleyn said possible solutions that should be examined included vaccinations and expanding the new heat treatment processing plant where export ostrich meat is parboiled by being heated to 70°C. 

“This process is approved by the EU. It is happening in Oudtshoorn, but it is new and there is limited capacity.” 

Ries Dempsey, marketing manager for Klein Karoo International, which markets ostrich products, said the heat process was “still very much in the developmental stage”.

South Africa: Ostrich farmers face ruin from H5N2

Via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a Bloomberg report: S. African ostrich farmers face ruin as bird flu halts trade. Excerpt:

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Danie Kok kicked his boots in the red dust swirling through empty wire pens at the farm he manages near Oudtshoorn, the world's ostrich-farming capital. No ostriches were to be seen. 

"We've been through some bad times, but nothing comes close to this," said Mr. Kok, 55, who has worked at the Van Wykskraal farm east of Cape Town for 30 years. 

Last year, more than 1,600 of the farm's birds were taken away and killed after a strain of bird flu was detected in the flock. Such outbreaks, detected on 43 farms, led the government to ban all fresh ostrich-meat exports from South Africa, which had supplied 70 percent of world demand. The ban won't be lifted until farmers meet new hygiene and registration requirements and the country has been disease-free for three months. 

About 740 ostrich farms, as well as 20,000 jobs in farms, slaughterhouses, tanneries and feather-processing plants, may be at risk in an industry that dates to 1864. Feathers from the flightless birds were outranked only by gold, diamonds and wool among South African exports before World War I. 

More than 43,000 ostriches have been culled in South Africa since the H5N2 virus was detected in April last year. While farmers have received 50 million rand ($6 million) in government compensation, the industry had been earning $115 million a year from meat exports. 

About 70 percent of meat, valued for its beef-like texture and its low cholesterol and fat content, was exported. Carrefour, the world's second-largest retailer, Aldi Group, Germany's biggest discount food chain, and Edeka Group's Netto stores, were among the largest buyers, according to Johan Stumpf, managing director of Klein Karoo International, the world's biggest ostrich-products processor. 

"You have the same expenses but no income," said Jack Klass, 78, the owner of Van Wykskraal, who has been farming since 1958. "It's going to ruin the business."

Taiwan: H5N2 outbreak confirmed

Via CRIEnglish.com: H5N2 Bird Flu Outbreak Confirmed in Taiwan.

Taiwan agricultural authorities confirmed Friday chickens in a farm of the island's central Yunlin county were infected with H5N2, a strain of avian flu that poses little risk to humans. 

Animal health quarantine official said chances were small for northbound migrant birds to pass the virus to the farm and believed the virus was carried by humans or machinery to Yunlin. 

So far, no other chicken farm in the county has reported a similar infection, according to Lu Cheng-chang, an official with Taiwan agricultural authorities. 

More than 3,000 chickens have died in the farm over the last three days, prompting authorities to launch an investigation into the cause. The latest has been the sixth H5N2 outbreak in Taiwan this year. Previously, chicken farms in Changhua, Tainan and Nantou were affected by the virus. 

South Africa: Export ban threatens survival of ostrich industry

Via IOL Business: Export ban threatens survival of ostrich industry. Excerpt:

South Africa’s ostrich industry hangs in the balance as farmers desperately wait for the EU to lift a ban on meat imports, with time and money running out. 

About 741 farms were registered with the SA Ostrich Business Chamber (SAOBC), but this number shrank after an outbreak of the H5N2 bird flu virus in the Klein Karoo, in the Western Cape, in April last year. 

“This number has reduced significantly in the past few months, with the EU import ban being a main driver, as it’s no longer profitable,” Piet Kleyn, the SAOBC’s interim chief executive, said yesterday. 

The EU used to import 90 percent of South Africa’s ostrich meat, Kleyn said. 

And the ban’s effects had been keenly felt by ostrich farms, mostly found in the Klein Karoo region of the southern Western Cape and Eastern Cape, which once slaughtered 250 000 birds a year for meat, leather and feathers. 

More than 40 000 infected ostriches were culled following the outbreak, said Western Cape Agricultural Department spokesman Wouter Kriel. 

He said the industry was losing about R108 million a month in export revenue and 20 000 jobs were at stake. The national government provided R50m in compensation to farmers who lost birds, but many had to close their farms or survive with a limited flock. 

The last time a highly pathogenic virus form was detected was in October last year. A low pathogenic form, which caused mild disease in poultry, was detected in February but had already been slaughtered out, Kriel said.

Taiwan: 3 test positive for H5N2

Via Channel NewsAsia: 3 test positive for avian flu in Taiwan. Excerpt:

Three poultry farm workers have been tested positive for the H5N2 avian influenza strain but none have displayed flu symptoms, Taiwan's disease control authorities said. 

They were among 141 people working at five poultry farms where the avian flu was discovered. 

Tens of thousands of chickens in the farms have been culled since the outbreak of H5N2 in the past few months. 

Medical experts believe the test results may well be a cross-reactivity since all the three persons had flu jabs last year, Xinhua news agency reported. 

Cases of humans who tested positive for H5N2 while showing no health disorders were previously reported in South Africa and Japan between 1993 to 1995.

CIDRAP: Flu news scan for March 28

Via CIDRAP: FLU NEWS SCAN: Indonesian H5N1 death, Nepal poultry H5N1 outbreaks. Click through for the full report and some good links. Excerpt:

Livestock officials in Nepal confirmed two more H5N1 outbreaks in poultry, according to a report yesterday to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). 

The virus struck two sites in Bagmati province where commercial farms are located. One is a layer farm in Kathmandu where ducks, quails, and pigs are raised separately at the same facility. The other location comprises two adjoining poultry farms that have layers in two sheds and broilers in another. 

The outbreaks killed 21,806 birds, and the remaining 3,014 were culled to control the spread of the virus. The virus has hit other farms in the same province over the past few months. 

In other developments, Israel's animal health ministry reported that two more cats have tested positive for the H5N1 virus, according to a Mar 25 OIE report. 

Officials had been monitoring cats near the site of an H5N1 outbreak in turkeys in Hadarom where cats had been seen eating infected carcasses, after which the virus was found in six cats. Active monitoring of cats in the area found the infections in the two most recent cases, one of which was fatal. Results in 15 other cats picked up in the area were negative. Authorities said they would continue monitoring cats in the village.

Holland: Bird flu outbreak caused by H5N2 virus (or not)

Via The Poultry Site: Dutch Bird Flu Outbreak Caused by H5N2 Virus. Excerpt:

The cause of the latest outbreak of low–pathogenic avian influnza (LPAI) has been identified as the H5N2 subtype. 

The veterinary authority of the Netherlands sent an Immediate Notification dated 19 March to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). 

 It is reported as a sub–clinical infection of LPAI and the presence of the H5N2 sub-type of the virus has been confirmed. 

Two hundred turkeys in a flock in Limburg province in the south-east of the country were found to be affected. The whole flock of 44,500 birds has bee destroyed.

Meanwhile, Mike Coston at Avian Flu Diary has a Reuters report that it's actually an H7 virus.

Taiwan: Former officials questioned over bird flu outbreak

Via the Taipei Times: Former officials questioned over bird flu outbreak. Excerpt:

After being questioned by Taipei prosecutors yesterday over an alleged cover-up of an H5N2 avian flu outbreak, former Council of Agriculture minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) told the media that there had been no cover-up and stressed that everything had been conducted in line with administrative procedures. 

Chen also said that he was the “big boss” referred to in a recording released by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of a meeting held on Feb. 1 to discuss the risks of an H5N2 bird flu outbreak in Fangyuan Township (芳苑), Changhua County, which was first reported on Dec. 27. 

As part of an investigation into whether an alleged cover-up of an H5N2 avian flu outbreak took place, Taipei prosecutors yesterday also summoned former Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine director Hsu Tien-lai (許天來) for questioning. 

Prosecutors said Chen was questioned as a witness. 

Prosecutors are investigating a claim of malfeasance against Hsu over the alleged concealment of the outbreak in January and reporting the high-risk outbreak as a low-risk incident. Several other senior officials may also be investigated.