Avian flu rampage not easing in Asia, Europe

The global battle against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is continuing over the holiday period.

Yurii Bukhanovskyi, Bigstock
Yurii Bukhanovskyi, Bigstock

The global battle against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is continuing over the holiday period. In Asia, South Korea is being hit especially hard, with mounting losses in the poultry sector requiring government action to ensure the country’s demand for eggs can be met. Japan, Taiwan, India and Israel have also reported new outbreaks of the disease over the last week. Within Europe, France is simultaneously battling a number of different avian influenza viruses, while the H5 virus has been detected for the first time in Greece, Montenegro and Bulgaria.

Asia: South Korea struggles to control HPAI

South Korea is reeling from its worst ever outbreak of HPAI, reports news agency, Yonhap. More than 22 million poultry across the country have been slaughtered in an attempt to contain the disease, which is caused by the H5N6 subtype of the virus.

According to the agency, the model used to predict the development of the epidemic has not been up to the task. Based on previous experience, the model is based on vehicular movements during a 21-day incubation period as the main means of virus transmission. That may have been effective for the 2014-15 outbreaks caused by the H5N8 virus that led to the loss of 14 million poultry, but the H5N6 virus currently circulating in the country seems to be spread by wild migratory birds without any incubation period.

With a national poultry flock of around 166 million, the loss of 22 million birds from HPAI is more than 13 percent of the total.

Rising prices of poultry products in South Korea became a signal of market difficulties to come. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has dropped import duties on eight types of egg products, including egg yolk and powdered egg. According to Yonhap, import tariffs on these products will be lowered to zero from the previous levels of between 8 and 30 percent for a period of six months starting in January.

Japan has been affected by the same HPAI virus as South Korea over the last month. According to the country’s official report to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), a seventh outbreak has been confirmed. The latest cases were in Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu. Around 50 birds of a laying flock of 107,000 birds died and the rest are being destroyed.

Six farms with 147,000 birds within 3km of the infected farm have been inspected, according to Japan Times. No signs of disease were found but the facilities are in quarantine, and no birds or eggs can be moved off the farms. Within 10km of the affected farm are a further 960,000 birds at 19 locations, from which poultry and products may not be moved outside the region.

Authorities in Taiwan have ordered the disinfection of a poultry slaughterhouse in Taipei after chickens tested positive for a new H5 type of the avian influenza virus was detected, reports Focus Taiwan. The authorities have warned the public to ensure that all poultry is fully cooked before consumption.

According to an official report sent to OIE, chickens have tested positive for the H5N8 HPAI virus in Taiwan recently. All were found at slaughterhouses, two in Taipei city, and one each in Kaohsiung city and Nantou county. A total of 2,928 carcasses have been destroyed. This virus has been detected periodically in Taiwan for the last two years.

H5N1 HPAI has returned to India, according to a report to the OIE. A number of dead crows and 2,242 poultry have tested positive for this virus at Keranga in the state of Orissa in the east of the country.

In Israel, 17 new outbreaks of HPAI caused by the H5N8 variant of the virus have been confirmed to the OIE by the veterinary authority. Eight of these were in wild birds, but the rest were in domestic poultry across four regions of the country. More than 119,000 birds are known to have been lost or sacrificed to control the disease, while the size of a layer flock in Jerusalem has not been specified. In four previous outbreaks, almost 80,000 poultry died or were destroyed.

Europe: Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro report HPAI virus detection

According to the French ministry of agriculture, there have been 64 confirmed outbreaks of HPAI in domestic poultry, and a further five cases in wild birds.

The ministry says there have been 52 confirmed outbreaks of HPAI caused by the H5N8 virus variant to the OIE. Eighteen of these were reported in the last week alone, and were revealed as a result of enhanced testing in the departments of south-west France in which previous outbreaks have occurred. A majority of affected flocks include ducks that are scheduled to be destroyed because they are geographically close or epidemiologically linked to others where the infection has been confirmed.

Away from southwest France, the H5N8 virus has been reported in two wild birds found dead in the department of Manche, which is the region of Normandy in north-west France.

Heightened testing in south-west France has also revealed the presence of a low-pathogenic avian influenza viruses circulating in the country, including H5N1, H5N3 and H5N8 virus subtypes, according to reports sent to the OIE. At least 31,600 poultry, mainly ducks, have been scheduled for culling in the last week after positive results for low-pathogenic viruses have been confirmed.

As well as five outbreaks of HPAI caused by the H5N8 virus in wild birds, Germany has reported to the OIE cases in six flocks of domestic poultry over the last week. These included one backyard flock and four commercial farms in the states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. More than 54,000 turkeys, ducks and geese have died or been destroyed as a result of the infection.

There have been 10 new confirmed outbreaks of HPAI caused by the H5N8 virus in Poland. Affecting the provinces of Lubuskie, Lesser Poland, West Pomeranian and Mazovia, five farms were affected in addition to two backyard flocks and a number of wild birds. More than 115,000 poultry have died or been destroyed in these outbreaks.

Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro have each reported their first cases of HPAI. These were confined to small numbers of wild birds or semi-domesticated species in natural parks, the Greek and Montenegrin authorities reported to OIE. In Bulgaria, however, an H5 virus has been confirmed at two farms and in five backyard flocks.

Sweden has reported H5N8 HPAI in a second flock of domestic poultry. The outbreak was in a small backyard flock on an isolated island in Stockholm county.

The government of the Netherlands has confirmed two new outbreaks HPAI. The first affected a farm with 6,600 birds in Stolwijk in South Holland. A few days later at Zoetewoude in the same province, one farm with 28,500 chickens was confirmed with a highly pathogenic H5 virus, and a further 30,000 birds at another farm within 1km will also be destroyed to stop the virus spreading further.

Several European countries have reported new cases of HPAI in wild birds. These include Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, U.K. (Wales and Scotland) and Romania. 

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