Winter weather brings avian flu back to Europe, Asia

The start of winter in the northern hemisphere has brought reports of new cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry. After an absence during the warmer summer months, the disease has returned to The Netherlands, Taiwan and South Korea, and there have been further outbreaks in South Africa and Italy. Low-pathogenic viruses have been detected in commercial birds in France and Germany.

Thatsaphon Saengnarongrat, Bigstock
Thatsaphon Saengnarongrat, Bigstock

The start of winter in the northern hemisphere has brought reports of new cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry. After an absence during the warmer summer months, the disease has returned to The Netherlands, Taiwan and South Korea, and there have been further outbreaks in South Africa and Italy. Low-pathogenic viruses have been detected in commercial birds in France and Germany.

Avian influenza in Africa

South Africa has confirmed a further six outbreaks of HPAI caused by the H5N8 virus variant, bringing the country’s total to 106 since June 2017.

All the latest outbreaks were in flocks of commercial ostriches in Western Cape Province, according to the official report of the national animal health agency to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). There were a total of 58 cases in the more than 6,300 birds involved in these outbreaks.

Zimbabwe’s Department of Livestock and Veterinary Services has declared the country to be free of HPAI. The H5N8 virus variant hit one large poultry enterprise in Lanark in June of this year, the agency reported to the OIE. Affected units were depopulated and disinfected. There have been no new cases there or at neighboring farms for the last three months.

Following earlier outbreaks of H5N1 HPAI in Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) since May of 2015 followed by a period without new outbreaks, the ministry of animal and fisheries resources has informed OIE that it is initiating the process of self-declaration of freedom from the disease.

Europe: New HPAI outbreaks in the Netherlands, Italy

After a six-month absence, the H5N6 subtype of the HPAI virus has returned to The Netherlands. Dutch News reports that the highly pathogenic virus has been confirmed in a flock of 16,000 ducks at Biddinghuizen in the province of Flevoland. All the birds have been humanely destroyed, and movements of poultry, eggs and manure have been banned within a 10-kilometer radius of the outbreak.

Italy’s count of H5N8 HPAI outbreaks for this year has reached 83, according to Italian health authority and research organization for animal health and food safety (IZSVe).

The agency has just confirmed the virus in a flock of 17,000 meat turkeys in the province of Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna. Previous recent outbreaks have affected a broiler flock in Brescia in the region of Lombardy, and two mixed flocks in Treviso province in Veneto.

These four latest outbreaks led to the death or humane destruction of more than 84,000 birds in Italy.

Russia’s animal health agency reported to the OIE the country’s first cases of HPAI linked to the H5N8 virus variant one year ago. There has been a new outbreak in Rostov oblast, where three birds of a village flock tested positive for the virus.

Low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) viruses have lately been detected in poultry flocks in France and Germany.

In France, the H5N3 LPAI variant was found when a flock of ducks in the department of Lot-et-Garonne in the south-west of the country during a pre-movement check, according to the official report to the OIE. A similar virus was last detected in September in turkey breeders in the north western department of Maine-et-Loire.

Poultry at a farm in Lower Saxony tested positive for an H5N2 LPAI virus in the third week of November, German’s chief veterinarian has informed the OIE. Investigations were carried out after 43 of the 1,011 ducks and geese at the farm died. The last time this virus was detected in the country was in May of this year.

Asia: HPAI returns to Taiwan, South Korea, Cambodia

After an absence of around seven months, the Taiwan’s agriculture ministry has confirmed that the H5N6 HPAI virus has been detected in a wild bird found dead at a natural park in Tainan city.

According to the ministry’s official report to the OIE, intensive surveillance is being undertaken at the four poultry farms near to the park. The government has also launched a program of active surveillance at farms with a higher risk of HPAI infection, namely those near to wetland areas, duck farms where the birds are fed outside, and in flocks of native chickens.

During November, Taiwan’s agriculture ministry also confirmed four new outbreaks of HPAI linked to the H5N2 virus variant affecting more than 16,400 birds. Three of these outbreaks were in ducks or native chickens at farms in Yunlin county, and the virus was also detected in birds at a slaughterhouse in Kaohsiung city.

In South Korea, the H5N6 HPAI virus returned in mid-November after a brief absence, affecting 12,500 poultry in North Jeolla province in the south west of the country. The farm is located near to a large lake, suggesting that the source of infection may have been wild birds.

The agriculture ministry has also informed OIE about 15 outbreaks of HPAI linked to the H5N8 virus variant in June of this year. In total, 1,327 poultry were affected, mostly local native chickens in small backyard flocks. Twelve of the outbreaks were in North Jeolla, with a further two in the south-eastern province of South Gyeongsang, and one in Daegu city in the south of the country.

H5N1 HPAI has returned to Cambodia after an absence of 10 months, according to the agriculture ministry report to the OIE. Almost all the 1,763 chickens at the farm in the central province of Kampong Cham died of the disease before the infection was confirmed.

Japan’s veterinary agency has confirmed the H5N6 HPAI virus has been isolated from a further six wild birds found dead in Matsue in Shimane prefecture on Honshu. In early November, the same virus subtype was detected in a wild swan in the city.

One new human case of avian influenza in China

The first case of avian influenza A (H7N9) since October has been confirmed in China, according to Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection. The latest patient, from Yunnan province, brings the number of global cases since March of 2013 to 1,565.

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