Based on official reports, the only state to report new cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) officially is Taiwan, while the low-pathogenic disease has been confirmed at commercial poultry enterprises in eastern Russia and in Sweden.
Taiwan’s animal health agency has confirmed to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) a further three new outbreaks of HPAI in commercial poultry earlier this month. Latest to be affected were a flock of almost 1,100 meat ducks in the town of Mailiao in Yunlin county, and two groups of native chickens at slaughterhouses in Changzhi (Pingtung county) and the Wanhua district of Taipei. Samples taken from the duck farm tested positive for the H5N2 variant of the virus, and the cases in chickens were confirmed after suspicious signs were observed post-mortem.
More than 8,200 birds were lost to the disease through mortality or destruction in these latest outbreaks in Taiwan.
Further details are emerging of the latest HPAI situation in Nepal. The authorities in the affected region, Chitwan, have destroyed poultry, eggs and other products valued at more than NPR7 million( US$65,000), the chair of the Nepal Egg Producers Association told Himalayan Times.
In the initial aftermath of the outbreaks at two poultry farms, almost 12,000 laying hens, 23 native poultry, 144 ducks, four broilers, 607kg feed, and 12,726 eggs were destroyed, according to the District Livestock Development Office.
Low-pathogenic avian influenza in Russian poultry flock
In mid-May, EAO Media reported that low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) of an H9 subtype had affected a poultry flock at Nadezhdinskaya Poultry in Primorsky Krai in Russia’s Far East region.
It was reported that the first symptoms were observed in the flock the previous week, and that all the 236,000 birds were scheduled from destruction once the virus was confirmed. The farm was immediately put in quarantine, and controls were put in place in the surrounding area. Both measures will remain in place for at least 21 days.
Europe: HPAI virus detected in wild birds in Sweden
Sweden’s veterinary authority has informed the OIE that a wild eagle found dead in Kalmar county earlier this month has tested positive for the H5N6 variant of HPAI.
An LPAI virus of the H5 subgroup has also been detected in the country for the first time, according to a separate OIE report. Samples taken from a flock of 8,600 breeding pheasants in Skane county under a program of routine surveillance tested positive for the virus last week. All the birds were scheduled for humane destruction, and the premises will be cleaned and disinfected.
There has been an outbreak of avian flu in Dobrich district, according to the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency. The most recent confirmed outbreaks of HPAI in the country’s poultry sector were caused by an H5 virus, and occurred in Dobrich in March, and in Jambol the following month.
Last week, the UK’s agriculture ministry lifted the avian flu prevention measures across England. The measures had been put in place earlier this year after wild birds at several locations across the country tested positive for the HPAI virus.
