Avian flu confirmed in Kazakhstan

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been identified as the cause of poultry mortalities in several reports of Kazakhstan, while new outbreaks are reported in nearby regions of Russia. The disease has also returned to northern Vietnam after a short absence.

(Aha-Soft | Bigstock)
(Aha-Soft | Bigstock)

Kazakhstan’s National Reference Center has reported the presence of a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPA)I virus in samples from dead poultry. The birds died as the result of a series of outbreaks of disease in seven districts in the north of the country during the second week of September, reports AKIpress.

While the scale of the outbreaks was not reported, movements were suspended for live birds, poultry products, feed and equipment in the affected districts. As many as 873,000 doses of vaccine have been provided for the vaccination of poultry in districts that border Russia.

Already in early August, Kazakhstan implemented temporary restrictions on imports of poultry and related food products from Russia, according to the agriculture department of the United Kingdom government. Subsequently, the H5N8 HPAI virus was detected in the carcass of a wild duck found dead in the area shortly before the outbreaks in poultry were confirmed. Species of the duck is unknown, as is whether it was a migrant or resident in the region.

Further cases in Russia’s Urals, Siberia

Eight more outbreaks of HPAI have been confirmed in poultry in the Urals and Siberian federal districts of Russia. Around one month ago, the first outbreaks of HPAI linked to an H5 virus were reported in the area to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

In its latest reports, the agriculture ministry identifies the virus as one of the H5N8 subtype, which had previously been detected in the area around one year ago.

In the first week of September, the virus was found in eight more poultry flocks — four in each of the oblasts of Tuymen and Omsk. A total of 1,560 poultry were affected by these outbreaks, and 483 of the birds died.

These bring the total outbreaks in Russia linked to this virus over the past month to 36, directly involving more than 1.567 million birds. Movement restrictions are put in place around outbreaks, according to the ministry. It reports that no poultry products have ever been sold commercially from any of the infected premises.

Outbreaks have also been recorded in Kurgan and Chelyabinsk oblasts, which are in the Urals federal district, as well as in four wild swans found dead at the end of August in Tuymen.

Two HPAI viruses detected in Vietnam

In the past week, Vietnam’s agriculture ministry has reported the return of the H5N6 HPAI virus variant to the Red River Delta in the north of the country.

According to the official report to the OIE, this virus was detected in a village flock of almost 6,200 birds in Hai Phong province on August 21. Around 350 of the birds died, and the rest have been destroyed.

The ministry states that vaccination is permitted of live poultry around the affected flocks. This virus variant was last detected in the region at the end of July this year, and source of the present infection is reported to be unknown.

In the Mekong Delta region in the south of Vietnam, the H5N1 HPAI virus was detected in a village flock of 300 poultry at the end of August. Around 100 of the birds died, and the rest have destroyed.

This outbreak followed an earlier outbreak in the same district of Tra Vinh province during the third week of July.

HPAI 'resolved' in India’s Karnataka state

India’s animal health agency has declared to the OIE that the HPAI situation in the southern state of Karnataka has been “resolved.”

In mid-March of this year, the H5N1 HPAI virus variant was detected at a poultry farm and in a backyard flock, affecting almost 8,500 birds. Since that time, the virus has not been detected.

Ghana’s poultry farmers await avian flu compensation

Farmers in the West African state whose poultry flocks were culled in order to control HPAI are still to receive the financial compensation they were promised.

Following the outbreaks in 2015, 7 million cedi (GHS; US$1.21 million) was transferred to the agriculture ministry for this purpose, reports My Joy Online. Farming organizations say that their members have received no payments. Civil society organization Excellent Ghana has asked the agriculture ministry to account for this funding.

New human case of avian influenza A in China

In its latest update on avian influenza in the Western Pacific Region, the World Health Organization records one new case of human infection with the avian influenza A(H9N2) virus.

The virus was detected in a 4-year-old girl in China’s Guangdong Province. The child, who had a mild illness, had a history of exposure to live poultry. None of her family appear to have been infected.

This latest case is China’s sixth so far this year with this infection, and brings the country’s total since December of 2015 to 34.

View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation.

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