13 new avian flu outbreaks confirmed in Russia

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Russian poultry have been reported in two new areas as the infection appears to be spreading out of control across the country’s west. New cases have also been confirmed in Ghana.

Jon Ng | Freeimages.com
Jon Ng | Freeimages.com

Russia’s total number of confirmed outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) caused by an H5 virus since mid-June has risen to 54 after the country’s agriculture ministry reported cases at 13 additional locations to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) last week.

With poultry in two more regions affected — the republics of Tatarstan and Chuvash — HPAI outbreaks have now spread to 10 oblasts. New cases were also detected in the previously affected oblasts of Rostov and Nizhny Novgorod. While the majority of the latest cases have been in backyard flocks, commercial poultry at two locations in Rostov have also succumbed to the disease. More than 300,000 birds were affected in the latest outbreaks, with 8,873 deaths and almost 65,000 more destroyed to reduce the risk of further disease spread.

Denmark’s animal health agency has reported to the OIE the detection of HPAI of the H5N6 subgroup in a wild bird on a small island off Lolland in the region of Zealand. The bird, a common eider, was found dead in early July among a group of other wild birds of several species. This was the first detection of the virus in Danish wild birds since mid-April this year.

The H5N8B HPAI virus circulating in Europe in 2016-17 adapted with particular virulence for waterfowl, according to new research published in Emerging Microbes and Infections. Confirming observations during the outbreaks, the German research group found that infection led to the rapid onset of disease and mortality in Pekin ducks, but the virus had little potential to infect people.

Asia: HPAI detected at Saudi Arabian bird market

A bird market in Riyadh has been closed following the detection of the H5N8 HPAI virus in a duck, reported Arab News last week.

A total of 32 outbreaks of the disease, affecting more than 5.5 million poultry, have been confirmed by the Kingdom’s veterinary authority to the OIE since last December. The most recent of these outbreaks were in the Riyadh area in April.

Following two outbreaks of HPAI linked to the H5N8 virus variant — the most recent was in Baghdad in April 2018 — Iraq’s agriculture ministry has declared the disease event “resolved” to the OIE.

Africa: New outbreak in Ghana’s poultry sector

A third outbreak of HPAI linked to a virus belonging to the H5 group has been confirmed to the OIE in the last week by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Ghana.

The latest cases — affecting 6,451 birds at a farm at the end of June — were in the Ejisu district of Ashanti state, where a previous outbreak had been reported. More than 2,000 poultry died at the farm most recently affected, and the rest of the flock has been destroyed.

While there have been no new cases of H5N8 HPAI in the country’s poultry sector, South Africa’s veterinary authority has reported to the OIE the recent detection of the virus in wild birds at two locations. The latest cases were an ibis in Gauteng in May, and a crane in Western Cape Province earlier this month.

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