Latest official reports from countries across the continent of Asia reveal many new outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry and wild birds, including in Cambodia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Taiwan.
In wild birds in Afghanistan and Switzerland, new HPAI virus families have been detected for the first time.
Veterinary health authorities in South Korea have reported seven new outbreaks of HPAI linked to the H5N6 virus variant to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) over the last two weeks. Six of these cases were in breeding or meat ducks in the province of South Jeolla, continuing the battle against the disease in this sector and region in the south-west of the country. More than 115,000 birds were lost of the disease due to mortality or destruction.
The other South Korean outbreak represents a worrying development as it involved a flock of 197,000 laying hens in Gyeonggi province, which surrounds the capital city, Seoul.
The region is also near to PyeongChang, site of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games. Strengthened quarantine measures have been put in place around this outbreak, reports Yonhap, and the government has ordered the culling of almost 700,000 chickens nearby to prevent the further spread of the infection.
After an absence of more than a year, the H5N8 variant of HPAI has returned to the poultry sector in Iraq. The virus was detected in a flock of around 42,000 poultry there at the end of December, when it killed 7,250 of the birds.
Saudi Arabia’s agriculture ministry has informed the OIE about cases of HPAI caused by the H5N8 virus at a further three locations in Riyadh, bringing the Kingdom’s total outbreaks to four since mid-December. The latest cases were in backyard poultry flocks totaling more than 8,800 birds.
There has also been a further three outbreaks of HPAI in Taiwan linked to the H5N2 virus variant. All were in Yunlin county, and affected two ducks flocks in Citong, and chickens in Baozhong—a total of 12,783 birds died or were culled.
Focus Taiwan reports a further two more recent outbreaks of HPAI in chicken flocks in Yunlin—in 12,500 birds in Dongshih, and 15,239 more in Yuanchang.
Cambodia’s veterinary authority has reported to the OIE a new outbreak of HPAI linked to the H5N1 virus variant, the country’s third. The latest outbreak was in a backyard flock in Kampong Cham.
Hong Kong’s chief veterinarian has informed the OIE about a second wild bird that tested positive for the H5N6 HPAI virus. The latest case was a spoonbill in Hong Kong Wetland Park.
Afghanistan’s animal health agency has reported to the OIE that a group of wild rooks in a forest in Khost province have tested positive for an H5 variant of the HPAI virus. This is the first detection of such a virus in the country since 2007. The region is in the east of the country, and borders Pakistan.
China’s agriculture ministry has informed the OIE that a number of previous HPAI “events” dating back as far as 2013 have been resolved. The cases involved the HPAI virus subtypes H5N1, H5N2, H5N3, H5N6 and H5N8.
From Bangladesh comes official confirmation that HPAI linked to the H5N1 virus has been resolved after a single outbreak of the disease in wild birds 12 months ago.
Europe: New HPAI strain circulating in Russia
Now battling H5N8 HPAI for more than one year, Russia’s agriculture ministry reported to the OIE the first occurrence of the H5N2 virus strain in the last days of 2017. The location appears to be that of Poultry Farm Kostromskaya in Kostroma oblast in Central Russia, where the H5N8 variant was reported to have been detected just a few days previously. More than 44,000 birds of the 663,500-strong flock have died. With the earlier report withdrawn from the OIE web site in the meantime, it may be that the virus responsible for the Kostromskaya outbreak was erroneously identified or reported.
Italy too has been trying to bring H5N8 HPAI under control in its poultry industry for the last 12 months. According to the Italian health authority and research organization for animal health and food safety, IZSVe, the number of outbreaks remains at 83. The most recent cases were confirmed on December 11, 2017.
OIE has been informed by the French animal health agency that a low-pathogenic form of the H5N2 flu virus has been detected in a flock of 1,300 ducks in the department of Landes in south-west France. Around 260 of the birds tested positive for the virus during routine surveillance tests prior to movements for gavage.
A form of the H5N6 HPAI virus has been confirmed in Switzerland for the first time, according to an official report to the OIE. A wild swan found dead near Lake Biel in canton Bern tested positive for the virus, which appears from preliminary tests to be related to the H5N8/H5N6 variants currently circulating in Europe.
