India reports return of avian flu

Veterinary authorities in India have reported the return of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to the country’s poultry sector, and further outbreaks have been confirmed in Cambodia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan.

(Yurii Bukhanovskyi| Bigstock)
(Yurii Bukhanovskyi| Bigstock)

Veterinary authorities in India have reported the return of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to the country’s poultry sector, and further outbreaks have been confirmed in Cambodia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan.

At the end of last month, HPAI returned to India. The H5N8 HPAI virus was detected among village poultry at Bengaluru in the southern state of Karnataka, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare report to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). This was the first HPAI outbreak since June of 2017, and it involved 951 birds.

Taiwan’s battle with H5N2 HPAI in its poultry sector has now entered its third year. Over the last week, the authorities have reported a further six confirmed outbreaks affecting more than 34,400 birds to the OIE. Four of the outbreaks were in the county of Yunlin, and one each in Pingtung and Chiayi. Ducks were involved in three of the outbreaks, chickens and native chickens were infected at two locations, and the species at the sixth farm is not identified.

Recent reports from Focus Taiwan refer to a further four HPAI outbreaks, three in Pingtung and one in Changhua county. These led to the loss of 29,400 head of poultry — 16,000 hens, 10,450 chickens and 2,950 ducks — through mortality or destruction. These latest cases bring Taiwan’s totals since the beginning of this year to 12 outbreaks, and more than 115,000 poultry culled.

The animal health authority of Saudi Arabia has reported a further eight outbreaks of HPAI caused by the H5N8 virus subtype to the OIE. These followed four previously confirmed outbreaks, bring the Kingdom’s total to 12 since December 2017. Five of the latest outbreaks were at farms in the region of Riyadh, which was the location of earlier cases, and the others were in backyard flocks in Ash Sharqiya in the east, and in the western city of Mecca. In total, the most recent outbreaks resulted in the mortality of almost 109,000 birds, and the destruction of more than 1.258 million more.

The same virus type has been linked to a second outbreak of HPAI in Iraq earlier this month. According to the official report to the OIE, around half of the 209,000 birds at a farm in Babil governate in central Iraq died as a result of the infection, and the rest of the flock has been destroyed.

A backyard poultry flock in Phnom Penh is the latest to be affected by the H5N1 variant of HPAI, according to the latest Cambodian animal health agency’s report to the OIE.

After a bird of prey recently found dead at a Tokyo park tested positive for the H5N6 HPAI virus, the Environment Ministry raised its avian flu warning to its highest level, reports Japan Times.

There has been one new confirmed human case of avian influenza A(H7N9) in China, according to Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection. The latest patient, from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, brings the number of global cases since March of 2013 to 1,566. The number of cases of avian influenza A(H5N6) since 2014 remains unchanged at 18.

Europe: UK poultry keepers on alert

The United Kingdom’s animal health agency has reported to the OIE mass mortality of wild swans in the county of Warwickshire in central England. The virus was confirmed as the H5N6 variant, which is a reassortment of the H5N8 type circulating in Europe, and an N6 subtype also of European origin.

This is the second location where this virus has been detected in the wild bird population, prompting a warning to all poultry keepers to be on alert.

“Whether you keep just a few birds or thousands, you are now legally required to meet enhanced biosecurity requirements and this is in your interests to do, to protect your birds from this highly infectious virus,” said Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens.

From France comes news of a further farm in the south-west of the country where a low-pathogenic H5 avian flu virus has been detected in ducks followed enhanced surveillance. Depopulation of the farm’s 3,660 birds in Landes had commenced, according to the official OIE report.

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