Avian Influenza

News Update, December 15

H5N1 in Wild birds
No news this week.

H5N1 in Poultry
Hong Kong. Two dead chickens have tested positive for bird flu at a farm in the Yuen Long District in Hong Kong bordering China. Some 100 breeding and sentinel chickens died and tested positive for H5N1 on December 7th, according to Thomas Sit, Assistant Director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. Sentinel chickens are left unvaccinated to serve as sensitive monitors for H5N1, but the death of previously vaccinated birds raises concern about whether the vaccine used by Hong Kong has lost its efficacy. York Chow, the secretary for food and health said that a total of 80,000 birds within 3 km of the farm will be culled and a 21 day ban on importing poultry would include Christmas, a time when demand is traditionally high. Chicken traders said that fertilized eggs smuggled from mainland China may have been the source of the outbreak.

India. Bird flu has spread to additional areas in India early this week after an initial outbreak of over 600 birds was found in Kamrup District in early December. Official sources, quoted in the Assam Tribune, have reported that new cases of bird flu have been found in poultry from the Bejera area in Kamrup and in the village of Nilibari in Chirang District. Extensive culling of birds, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, has occurred in all the areas with identified cases, though it has been hard to contain the outbreak. “There have been some reports of people trying to shift the birds from infected areas to other places with the intention of disposing them of in the markets instead of taking Government compensation,” said Assam veterinary and animal husbandry director Dr. Ashwini Kataky. India will likely ask neighboring Bangladesh to help contain the bird flu epidemic. According to the Financial Express, Indian authorities feel that the virus has likely entered the country from Bangladesh and has quickly spread to three districts in Assam, which directly borders Bangladesh. A total of six districts in Assam have been affected by bird flu, including Barpeta, Chirang, Dibrugarh, Nalbari, Kamrup (Metro), and Kamrup (Rural) Districts.

H5N1 in Humans
Indonesia. Two patients, a nine year old and a two year old, have tested positive for H5N1. The first patient, from Riau Province, fell ill in November, but was hospitalized and released after a full recovery.  Officials had found dead poultry at her home earlier that month.  The second patient developed symptoms mid-November but died later that month in East Jakarta.  The source of the infection was traced to a live bird market.  Indonesia continues to have high numbers of H5N1 cases and has recorded 113 total fatalities to date. (more...)

Visit Pandemic & Avian Flu.gov for all related federal information. The Department of the Interior's role in federal pandemic & avian planning is detailed here.