Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) continues to trouble the poultry industry worldwide. A number of countries have reported the virus not only in commercial poultry flocks, but in backyard flocks, wild birds and even cattle.
Avian flu in Israel
Veterinary authorities in Israel reported to World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) the detection of the H5N8 HPAI virus in wild birds in three national parks as well as in three flocks of fattening turkeys affecting 96,000 birds.
Kuwait backyard flock affected
Kuwait has detected the same virus family for the first time in a mixed backyard flock in Jahra governate.
Asian avian influenza cases
The H5N1 HPAI virus has been reported in India – at a small farm in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat in the west of the country, according to an OIE report. The H5N8 virus was also detected in birds at zoos between October and December last year. A total of 38 birds died at locations in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
After an absence of almost one year, the H5N1 virus has returned to Bangladesh. The virus has been detected in dead crows at Rajshahi in the north-west of the country, and in a flock of 3,000 crossbred chickens near the city of Dhaka.
The number of outbreaks of HPAI in poultry caused by an H5N6 virus in Japan now stands at nine, following the confirmation of an outbreak in a flock of 168,000 broiler in Miyazaki prefecture.
Focus Taiwan reports a new outbreak of H5N2 HPAI in a chicken flock at Baozhong township in Yunlin county, which has led to the culling of 1,000 birds. This is the eighth outbreak so far this year.
The H5N1 HPAI virus has been confirmed in Kazakhstan for the first time since May 2015. It was detected in two dead swans in Aktau city, near the Caspian Sea.
Latin America: Second avian flu outbreak in Chile
A second outbreak of low-pathogenic H7N6 avian influenza has been confirmed in Chile. The affected farm is also in Valparaiso and belongs to the same company as the previous outbreak, but it is in a different district. More than 35,000 turkeys died or have been destroyed as a result of the disease in the latest outbreak.
Africa: HPAI returns to Niger
The H5N1 HPAI virus was detected in a small mixed poultry flock in the district of Tillaberi in the south-west of the country, according to a report received by the OIE from the authorities in Niger. The only previous outbreak in the West African country was in the same district in February last year.
In a long-running battle against low-pathogenic avian influenza in its commercial ostrich sector, the South African veterinary authority has reported one new outbreak in Western Cape Province. Thirty-one birds in a flock of 977 birds tested positive for the H5N2 virus.
