Russia, Taiwan, Vietnam report new avian flu outbreaks

Veterinary agencies in Russia, Taiwan and Vietnam have each reported officially just one outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry over the last week, while local media have registered new cases in India.

(mashi_naz, Bigstock)
(mashi_naz, Bigstock)

Veterinary agencies in Russia, Taiwan and Vietnam have each reported officially just one outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry over the last week, while local media have registered new cases in India.

Of the outbreaks registered with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) over the period, the one involving the most birds was at a farm in Russia’s Rostov oblast. Almost 37 percent of a flock of 6,355 39-week-old breeders succumbed to the disease at Ursdon turkey farm in early January, according to the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance.

The most recent previous outbreak in Russia linked to this virus variant — officially identified as a member of the H5 family — was in the neighboring oblast, Voronezh, at the end of October 2018.

HPAI situation in Asian poultry sector

Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture has informed the OIE of one new outbreak of HPAI linked to the H5N2 viral subtype. The virus was detected in a flock of 2,139 meat ducks at a farm near Dongshi in Yunlin county. All the birds on the premises have been destroyed to control the further spread of the disease.

A total of 97 poultry farms in Taiwan were infected with HPAI last year, according to official data cited recently by Focus Taiwan.

In Yunlin county alone, there were 62 HPAI outbreaks in 2018, reports Taiwan News, and more than 445,000 birds were culled to combat the spread of the disease. The situation has improved from the previous year, when over 1.17 million poultry were culled, and there were 101 confirmed outbreaks on poultry farms in the county.

A second outbreak of H5N1 HPAI in a new series has been reported by Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to the OIE. The virus has been detected on a village flock of 5,558 birds in the province of Long An in the Mekong Delta region. Around 200 birds died in the third week of December, and the rest have been destroyed. The previous outbreak in this series was in Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands region last month.

One week ago, India’s veterinary authority reported the detection of HPAI of the H5N1 subtype in a number of wild birds at four locations in the states of Bihar and Orissa in December.

Local media in Bihar have reported that birds have died in the village of Babusa in recent days. Tests confirmed the presence of the HPAI virus, reported Times of India last week, and the authorities have sent teams to the area in Banka district to control the spread of the infection by culling poultry and distributing disinfectants. Around 2,000 birds were culled in Munger district earlier this month following previous disease outbreaks.

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