Via CIDRAP, Lisa Schnirring writes: Avian flu strikes more flocks in France, Nigeria, Taiwan. Excerpt:
France's agriculture ministry today announced another highly pathogenic H5 avian flu outbreak in poultry, affecting another new area in the southwestern part of the country, raising the total so far to 66.
Elsewhere, Nigeria reported four more H5N1 outbreaks in its poultry sector, Taiwan reported 10 more outbreaks from two different highly pathogenic strains, and Hong Kong reported that tests on a dead egret yielded H5N6, the same strain that recently sickened two women—one of them fatally—in southern China.
H5N1 causes latest French outbreak
The pace of France's outbreaks has slowed since the events began in late November, but the country continues to report sporadic detections, with the 63rd and 64th outbreaks reported at the end of December in Dordogne and Gers, two departments that had earlier been affected by the virus.
The most recent update from France's agriculture ministry said the outbreak total stands at 66 today, apparently due to another detection in Landes for which no details were provided.
French officials said the first outbreak in Lot department—the country's 65th—occurred at a farm in the town of Miers that housed 260 Guinea fowl, 280 ducks, 650 chickens, and 60 broiler hens, according to an official statement translated and posted by Avian Flu Diary, an infectious disease news blog. It involved the H5N1 strain.
France's outbreaks have been caused by a new highly pathogenic Eurasian H5N1 strain, as well as H5N2 and H5N9.
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