Bird Flu News 3-21--6
- From: Bob Brock <bbrock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 12:17:48 -0500
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=23607
UN Warns Urgent Action, Aid Needed To Curb Bird Flu Virus
BRUSSELS (AP)--The U.N.'s top official for bird flu warned the
international community Thursday more urgent attention and aid was
needed to curb the spread of the deadly strain of the virus,
especially in Africa.
"There is a need for the whole world to recognize that we are in the
midst of an expanding situation that will need an expanded response,"
Dr. David Nabarro told reporters after talks with European Union
officials.
He told the European Commission, which has already pledged millions in
aid to a global donors fund, more funds would be needed in the long
term.
"With the expansion of avian influenza into more and more countries it
is inevitable that the whole world's going to need to continue to
invest...more in tackling, or helping countries tackle, the problem,"
Nabarro said.
The U.N. bird flu chief said he was traveling to Gabon next week,
where he would hold talks with representatives from 40 African nations
over what measures they could take to stem the spread of the virus
among poultry and wild birds there.
Nabarro said he hoped to get a sense at those talks what practical aid
richer nations and U.N. agencies could provide to those countries,
which are less able to provide resources to fight the disease.
"They are going to need all the support we can give them," he said.
Nabarro said a recent visit to Nigeria opened his eyes to the
"enormous challenges" in containing the spread of the H5N1 virus
there, due to the widespread poverty and lack of resources needed to
set up proper controls.
European nations, many of which have already confirmed outbreaks of
the H5N1 virus in wild birds, are trying to prevent the virus from
spreading to farm flocks, which would deal a severe blow to the
poultry industry and pose an increased hazard to humans who work with
chickens.
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=23729
Bird Flu Kills 865,000 Birds In Russia Since Feb Outbreak
MOSCOW (AP)--Some 865,000 domestic and wild birds in Russia's southern
regions have died since an outbreak of bird flu last month, officials
said Thursday.
Another 360,000 birds were culled by authorities since February to
stem the disease's spread, the Emergency Situations Ministry said in a
statement posted on its Web site.
It said that bird flu had swept through nine southern provinces. It
didn't say how many birds tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain
that can kill humans.
The office of the nation's top veterinary official, Gennady
Onishchenko, said earlier this month that authorities discovered H5N1
in domestic fowl in seven southern provinces.
Russia first recorded bird flu, including the H5N1 strain, in Siberia
last July, and it has since been registered in other parts of the
country.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the Cabinet late last month to set up
a bird-flu task force to stem the spread of the disease. No human
cases have been recorded.
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=24357
New Outbreaks Of H5N1 Bird Flu Confirmed In N Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR (AP)--Two new outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 bird flu
strain have been confirmed in poultry in a northern Malaysian state,
the national news agency Bernama reported Tuesday
Tests have confirmed the virus in Changkat Legong and Titi Gantung in
Perak state, Bernama said. Changkat Legong borders the Changkat
Tualang area where 41,000 birds were culled between Thursday and
Sunday following an outbreak there of H5N1.
On Monday, the government announced an outbreak of the disease in
neighboring Penang state and the H5N1 strain was also detected in four
villages outside Kuala Lumpur in February, indicating that the virus
is spreading from central Malaysia to northern Malaysia.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4828138.stm
Egypt fears third bird flu case
Egyptian officials have confirmed a third suspected human case of bird
flu.
The latest victim, a 30-year-old woman, continued to work with
chickens despite a ban imposed in mid-February, a health ministry
official said.
On Monday, Egyptian officials said the second suspected human case, a
man who had been in hospital since Thursday, had apparently recovered.
Egyptian state TV reported on Saturday that a woman had died last week
from the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
All the cases originated in the Qaliubiya region, just north of Cairo.
The World Health Organisation has said that further tests are needed
to confirm the virus caused the woman's death.
In February, the Egyptian government ordered the slaughter of all
poultry kept in homes, as part of efforts to stop the spread of the
H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
The H5N1 strain has killed at least 90 people since early 2003, mostly
in South-East Asia.
The virus can infect humans in close contact with birds. There is
still no evidence that it can be passed from human to human.
<http://today.reuters.co.uk/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=uri:2006-03-21T082711Z_01_SP243260_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BIRDFLU-PAKISTAN.xml>
Pakistan confirms H5N1 bird flu strain in poultry
Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:27 AM GMT
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The bird flu virus found in
two Pakistan poultry flocks late last month was the deadly H5N1
strain, officials confirmed on Tuesday.
But livestock Commissioner Muhammad Afzal said there had been no other
cases of bird flu since the outbreak was first reported on February 27
at farms in the North West Frontier Province.
Samples from two farms were sent to a laboratory in Britain, and the
flocks -- totalling around 23,000 birds -- were culled.
"I can only confirm that the H5N1 type of virus was found in chickens
from both the farms," Agriculture Ministry official Mohammad Akhlaque
told Reuters.
"We have conducted tests on the people who worked on both the farms
and they are healthy. There is no sign of any bird flu in those
people. We have already culled all chickens so there is not much more
we can do," he told Reuters.
"The situation is under control and there is no report of any further
outbreak of H5N1 from any part of the country," Afzal said, adding
that tests on birds from central Punjab and southern Sindh provinces
have proved negative and a nationwide survey was being conducted as a
precaution.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1139395641397&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Bird flu suspected at Moshav Kinneret
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Despite the Agriculture Ministry's insistence that bird flu is "under
control," the virus was found in two other locations in the South on
Monday.
In addition, Channel 2 reported that Moshav Kinneret in the North may
also have been infected, and the fowl there have been tested, with
results to be announced on Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=Health&cat=Bird_Flu
Bird flu kills five young people in Azerbaijan
Reuters - 21 minutes ago
GENEVA - Bird flu has killed five young people in Azerbaijan, the
World Health Organization said on Tuesday, adding it was investigating
whether some of the victims could have been infected collecting
feathers from dead swans. Confirmation of the five deaths takes the
WHO toll from the virus to 103 since late 2003. Egypt reported its
fourth suspected human case over the past week.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060321/ap_on_he_me/us_bird_flu_4
Bird Flu May Arrive in U.S. This Year By LIBBY QUAID, AP Food and Farm
Writer
2 hours, 50 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Bird flu is likely to arrive this year in the United
States, with the increased testing of tens of thousands of wild birds
expected to reveal dozens of suspected cases, the Bush administration
said Monday.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2095339,00.html
Bird flu mutation 'adds to threat of human pandemic'
By Mark Henderson
THE virus that causes bird flu has split into two distinct genetic
subgroups, widening the gene pool from which a form that could trigger
a human pandemic might evolve.
An analysis of more than 300 samples of the H5N1 virus taken from
humans and birds has revealed that its family tree has started to
branch out in a way that could make it more threatening to people.
Before 2005 every known human case of avian flu had been caused by a
particular subtype of the H5N1 virus, which affected Vietnam, Cambodia
and Thailand.
The H5N1 virus that started to infect people in Indonesia last year,
however, has now been found to have subtle genetic differences, which
scientists likened to those between human cousins. While this mutation
has not in itself made the H5N1 virus any more readily transmissible
from person to person ? the key step if it is to start a pandemic ?
the changes are worrying because they show that the virus is
increasing in genetic diversity.
This is important because a wider gene pool creates more opportunities
for H5N1 to acquire the characteristics it needs to infect humans with
ease, though it remains uncertain whether or not this will happen. It
will also make it more difficult for scientists to monitor the way
that the virus is changing, so as to track potentially dangerous
mutations.
?As the virus continues its geographic expansion, it is also
undergoing genetic diversity expansion,? said Rebecca Garten, of the
US Centres for Disease Control and Surveillance (CDC) in Atlanta,
Georgia, who led the study.
?Back in 2003 we only had one genetically distinct population of H5N1
with the potential to cause a human pandemic. Now we have two.?
John Wood, a virologist at the National Institute for Biological
Standards and Control in Hertfordshire, agreed that the changes added
to the pandemic risk from the virus, although there are no indications
that the necessary mutations have happened yet. He said: ?The more
mutations that are seen, the more the virus is able to mutate, the
greater the chances of the virus changing.?
.
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