After an absence of more than one year, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) returned to the Southeast Asian state of Myanmar in July.
Taiwan and Italy have also reported new outbreaks in their respective poultry sectors.
Asia: Avian flu returns to Myanmar, Taiwan
HPAI returned to Myanmar in July after it had not been present for more than a year. The recent case affected a commercial flock of 5,000 laying hens in the southern region of Tanintharyi. According to the official report from the country’s veterinary authority to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), more than 3,000 of the birds died after showing signs of diarrhea, anorexia, and a drop in egg production. The outbreak – caused by the H5N1 virus variant - was linked to a lack of biosecurity at the farm, and an illegal processing facility on the premises.
In Taiwan, there has been a further outbreak of HPAI affecting a flock of more than 18,700 native chickens in Changhua county, according to the OIE report. The H5N2 subtype of the virus was detected there.
Taiwan’s battle against HPAI will have been made more challenging by adverse weather conditions in recent days. Typhoon Nesat and Tropical Storm Haintang have caused an estimated TWD11.7 million (US$387,000) in damage to the livestock sector alone, reports Focus Taiwan. Worst affected were the counties of Yilan and Pingtung, which have reported a number of HPAI outbreaks over recent months and years.
Human H7N9 influenza situation in China stable
According to the latest weekly figures from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) in Hong Kong, the total number of confirmed human cases of influenza A(H7N9) since early 2013 remains at 1,557. The figure includes 751 cases recorded in Mainland China since October 2016.
Europe: New outbreaks in Italy
In Italy, the number of outbreaks of HPAI in poultry caused by the H5N8 virus so far this year has risen to 22.
Last week, the Italian health authority and research organization for animal health and food safety (IZSVe) reported three new outbreaks of the disease. The virus was detected in two flocks totaling almost 30,000 fattening turkeys in the province of Verona in Veneto, and in 126,000 commercial laying hens in Mantua in the region of Lombardy.
A suspected outbreak the previous week in a flock of 460,000 laying hens in Mantua has also been confirmed as H5N8 HPAI.
HPAI detected in wild birds, hobby flock in South Africa
Following confirmation of cases in the commercial poultry sector lately, South Africa’s animal health authority has informed OIE about four further outbreaks of HPAI in birds over the last month. While three of the latest outbreaks involved wild birds in the regions of Mpumalanga and Gauteng, the same H5N8 subtype of the virus was also detected in a hobby flock of 25 geese in Gauteng.
