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Bird Flu Information and News 2008

 

Latest Bird Flu World News: December 1 - 6, 2008

Bird Flu Spreads To New Areas In Assam.
GUWAHATI, India - A fresh outbreak of bird flu in poultry was detected in Assam on Wednesday and authorities prepared to start culling thousands of chickens, a senior official said. "Yes, bird flu has spread to new areas, we are getting ready to start culling in those areas shortly," Ashim Kumar Kakoty, a top veterinary official in Assam, told Reuters. More than 40,000 chickens and ducks have been be slaughtered over the weekend in around 20 villages, after one of them, just 35 KM west of Guwahati -- the biggest city in the region -- was hit by bird flu. Authorities were worried about a new outbreak after some poultry deaths were reported in Palasbari, also close to Guwahati. "The newly affected areas cover about 20 villages," Kakoty said. Sale and movement of poultry in and around Guwahati has been prohibited and precautionary measures stepped up in other parts of the state. Health workers have moved to affected areas to check people for any flu-like symptoms. India has not reported any human infections so far, though the first outbreak in poultry was reported in 2006 in Maharashtra.

Official: Vietnam Faces High Risk Of Human Infection Of Bird Flu.
HANOI, Viet Nam - A Vietnamese medical official said on Wednesday that bird flu has reappeared in Vietnam, bringing high risk of humans becoming infected with the disease, Vietnam News Agency reported. The new cases were reported in poultry in southern Ca Mau province and central Nghe An province. No new cases of humans contraction have been detected so far, said Nguyen Huy Nga, Head of the Department for Preventive Medicine and Environment at a meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday. "But due to the conducive weather conditions and the unpredictable development of the epidemic in poultry, there is a high risk of human case," warned the medical official.

Bird Flu Makes Mallards Thin, Study Finds.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Avian flu viruses make mallard ducks thinner than other ducks, a finding that implies they do not spread the germs over long distances, researchers reported Tuesday. Their tests of thousands of ducks migrating through Sweden showed the viruses do affect the birds, contrary to conventional wisdom that the pathogens have no effect on them. And, to their surprise, they found the birds only "shed," or release, virus for a few days, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. "Mallard ducks are a main reservoir for low-pathogenic avian influenza virus in nature, yet surprisingly little is known about how infection affects these birds," Jonas Waldenstrom of Sweden's Kalmar University, Albert Osterhaus of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and colleagues wrote. A reservoir is a species that hosts a virus without becoming ill, and thus serves to spread it. Avian flu viruses have most often been found in migratory waterfowl, especially mallard ducks.

ROME, Italy - "A fresh input of US$ 350 million to the international fight against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) made the news when it was announced in Sharm El-Sheikh..." [Source: FAO, 2008]

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