02/09 | Bird Flu Hits Nigeria, Kills 200,000 Fowls
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PCViking
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Bird Flu Hits Nigeria, Kills 200,000 Fowls
By Moses Jolayemi in Lagos, Josephine Lohor in Abuja and Agaju Madugba in Kaduna, 02.08.2006Like a whirl wind, the highly dreaded bird flu ravaging parts of Europe and Asia has hit the country killing no fewer than 200,000 birds.
According to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), a Paris-based organization, this has the first time the disease is been detected in Africa.
The body said the type detected in the country was the "highly pathogenic" strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which can kill humans adding that it was found on a farm in the Northern state of Kaduna, where a team of experts had been sent.
Government officials at the Kaduna State ministries of health and agriculture also yesterday confirmed the outbreak of the dreaded disease which they said was found at Sambawa Farms and other locations at Jaji, near Kaduna.
Sambawa Farms is believed to be owned by the Minister of Sports, Alhaji Saidu Samaila Sambawa. Journalists who visited the farms yesteday were denied access and no official information was given.
Confirming the outbreak yesterday, the Federal Government announced that the Avian Influenza or Bird Flu had been detected in the country and disclosed that N2 billion had been immediately set aside as initial funds to be given out as compensation to affected farmers on the basis of N250 per bird in order to conserve their capital.
The Ministers of Agriculture and Information and National Orientation, Adamu Bello and Frank Nweke respectively, who disclosed these shortly after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, said that the confirmation of the existence of the Bird Flu in Nigeria which took place on Tuesday came after tests were conducted in the National Vetinary Institute, Vom, Plateau State and at the Food and Agricultural Diagonistic Centre in Rome.
The ministers said the tests that began on January 16, 2006, arose from complaints about the death of birds in Sambawa Farms in Jaji, Kaduna State, chicks of which were traced to Kano State, just as tests were going on to determine the cause of death of birds in Jos, Plateau State.
The Minister of Agriculture on his part, said that “investigation has been going on for quite some time in this farm (Sambawa). Initially we thought it was New Castle or Cholera, but some of them exhibited symptoms of Avian Influenza and the mortality rate at the farm continued to rise.
“In line with our policy, what we did when we found that there was high mortality at Sambawa Farms was to quarantine it. We did this even before it was confirmed it was Avian Influenza. We put into motion the actions that were put in place. That farm was quarantined and nothing was going in and outside the farm and the mortality continued to increase”.
He added that “even as I talk to you, there is no single bird on that farm. They all died or were slaughtered. There are rules for slaughtering such birds because of the sensitive nature. Otherwise you will be spreading the disease.
“The Council today (yesterday) approved that we stamp out or slaughter virtually every bird in every farm that is suspected to have been infected with Avian Influenza, quarantine it and ensure that we stamp all the livestock in that farm. Of course there will be full compensation paid for the slaughtered birds at the rate of N250 per bird. We will impose restriction of movement in any place that is strongly suspected to be harbouring Avian influenza until checks are done.
There are procedures for this”, the Agriculture Minister added.
Although allaying fears that the bird flu that occurred in Nigeria in 1982 and was successfully contained has so far not been detected in human beings, the Minister of Agriculture however advised that birds must be properly cooked before consumption.
According to him “there is absolutely no need for panic. Once it is cooked, there is no harm because the disease is non-resistant to heat. It just kills itself off. If it is cooked, there is no danger of people getting infected”.
While disclosing that all Chief Vetinary Officers have been asked to take immediate surveillance of their respective States, the Federal Government also announced that the Federal Ministry of Health has already made contingency arrangements in case the Bird Flu affects humans.
Giving his own account, the Minister of Information and National Orientation said that “you will recall that sometime last year, in the light of information coming from Asia as well as some parts of Europe, the Federal Government took pre-emptive steps to set up a committee, a kind of emergency preparedness or rapid response committee to think of what the country would do in a very logical manner in the event that the Evian flu epidemic which is ravaging bird population in Asia and Europe occurs in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, officials of the Kaduna state ministries who spoke on the condition of annonimity yesterday said relevant government agencies had already taken appropriate measures to control the spread of the disease.
There are fears that the disease could easily spread in Africa because of a lack of safeguards.
"What is most important now is not how it got into Nigeria, but how it can be prevented from leaving Nigeria," Cape Town ornithologist Phil Hockey told Reuters.
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=40245
PCViking
Lutefisk Survivor
PCViking
Lutefisk Survivor
Two women confirmed with bird flu in Indonesia
09/02/2006 - 10:36:42
Two Indonesian women from the same town have contracted bird flu and are being treated in a hospital, a senior health ministry official said today.
The women, aged 23 and 27, are in a “serious condition but seem to be improving”, said Hariadi Wibisono.
Both came from different parts of Bekasi, a town just east of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, he said.
The source of the infection was still being investigated, he said, but initial inquiries showed both women had contact with poultry.
http://www.eecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=73652666&p=7365z968&n=73653046
PCViking
Lutefisk Survivor
Feb 8, 2006 7:22 am US/Eastern
(AP) PARIS A "highly pathogenic" strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in poultry stocks in Nigeria - the first reported case of the disease in Africa, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health said Wednesday.
Nigeria reported the outbreak in Jaji, a village in the northern Kaduna state, according to the organization known by the acronym OIE. OIE spokeswoman Maria Zampaglione said the outbreak was the first reported case of H5N1 in Africa.
Nigerian authorities officially notified the OIE on Wednesday about the outbreak, the agency said in a statement. The outbreak affected commercial, battery-cage poultry.
A laboratory in Padova, Italy, identified "a highly pathogenic H5N1 and has further analyzed its genetic composition. Investigations are being carried out in order to define the degree of genetic homology with the currently known H5N1 strains," said the statement.
Nigerian authorities have introduced quarantine measures and controls on the movement of animals and disinfected the infected farm, said the OIE.
It said it is working with the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization to coordinate its response to the outbreak.
"A team of experts will be sent to the affected area in order to assess the situation and provide technical advice," it said.
According to the World Health Organization, about 160 human cases of the virus have been reported worldwide, and at least 85 people have died. Almost all of those who died were in Asia, and most are believed to have come into contact with infected birds. The disease has also been found in humans in Turkey and Iraq, and in birds in Europe.
Experts fear the strain could mutate into a form easily transmissible from human to human and spark a worldwide pandemic.
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/topstories_story_039072458.html
Worse Version Of Bird Flu Now In Africa
(AP) PARIS A "highly pathogenic" strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in poultry stocks in Nigeria - the first reported case of the disease in Africa, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health said Wednesday.
Nigeria reported the outbreak in Jaji, a village in the northern Kaduna state, according to the organization known by the acronym OIE. OIE spokeswoman Maria Zampaglione said the outbreak was the first reported case of H5N1 in Africa.
Nigerian authorities officially notified the OIE on Wednesday about the outbreak, the agency said in a statement. The outbreak affected commercial, battery-cage poultry.
A laboratory in Padova, Italy, identified "a highly pathogenic H5N1 and has further analyzed its genetic composition. Investigations are being carried out in order to define the degree of genetic homology with the currently known H5N1 strains," said the statement.
Nigerian authorities have introduced quarantine measures and controls on the movement of animals and disinfected the infected farm, said the OIE.
It said it is working with the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization to coordinate its response to the outbreak.
"A team of experts will be sent to the affected area in order to assess the situation and provide technical advice," it said.
According to the World Health Organization, about 160 human cases of the virus have been reported worldwide, and at least 85 people have died. Almost all of those who died were in Asia, and most are believed to have come into contact with infected birds. The disease has also been found in humans in Turkey and Iraq, and in birds in Europe.
Experts fear the strain could mutate into a form easily transmissible from human to human and spark a worldwide pandemic.
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/topstories_story_039072458.html
PCViking
Lutefisk Survivor
Uncontrolled bird flu in China has seeded outbreaks in Vietnam
Genetic analysis of H5N1 avian flu viruses collected from wild and domestic birds suggests the virus has spread in uncontrolled fashion in southern China for the past decade, igniting outbreaks in Vietnam and beyond.
A study released Monday also provides what could be a smoking gun in the heated dispute about whether migratory birds are actually playing a role in moving the virus across the globe. A number of wildlife experts have insisted migratory birds are not to blame, but this study contends genetic analysis shows there can be no other explanation.
"I've spent most of my life working with wild birds and I'm sympathetic. But you can't hide the facts that wild birds are most probably involved in the spread of this thing now," said leading avian influenza expert Dr. Robert Webster, one of the authors of the paper.
Webster and his co-authors – researchers from institutions in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia – argue the only way to minimize the damage done by the virus and reduce the risk it poses to human health is by addressing the problem at the virus's birthplace, in the poultry flocks of southern China.
"We have shown that H5N1 virus has persisted in its birthplace, southern China, for almost 10 years and has been repeatedly introduced into neighboring (e.g. Vietnam) and distant (e.g. Indonesia) regions, establishing 'colonies' of H5N1 viruses throughout Asia that directly exacerbate the pandemic threat," they said in the article, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Therefore control of this regional epizootic and its attendant pandemic threat requires that the source of virus in southern China be contained."
Doing that won't be easy, especially in light of another finding Webster and his colleagues reported.
They discovered instances where seemingly healthy chickens in Chinese poultry markets were shedding the virus. To date, chickens have been like the proverbial canaries in the coal mine with H5N1, which has killed millions of chickens across Asia.
It's not clear why the chickens didn't succumb to the virus. The authors suggest they may have been vaccinated or protected by previous exposure to a similar but not lethal virus. But one thing is clear: if chickens are able to survive infection but continue to shed the virus, tracing its spread will become much more difficult.
"It's not a case of 'there are dead birds and they are hiding it'. (That) there are no dead birds is the problem," Webster said in an interview from Hong Kong.
"The pernicious thing is that there are these perfectly healthy birds that you walk into the markets day after day after day and the virus is always there."
The researchers collected viruses over several years from wild birds in the Mai Po marshes of Hong Kong and at Poyang Lake in eastern China, and from swabs taken from apparently healthy poultry in markets across southern China.
They generated genetic sequences of the H5N1 viruses, comparing them to each other and to other previously sequenced viruses on what are called phylogenetic trees. These charts, the equivalent of a family tree, can identify where a virus came from by finding viruses to which it is most closely genetically related.
The charts the group generated suggest viruses from domestic poultry in southern China infected wild ducks in early 2005. Ducks took those viruses to Poyang Lake in eastern China and from there to Qinghai Lake in western China, more than 1,700 kilometres away. The viruses were responsible for a large die-off of wild birds at Qinghai Lake – a wild bird reserve – that occurred last May.
"That was the tipping point. The virus really got into the migratory birds at that point," Webster, who is based at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., said of the Qinghai Lake incident.
Recent analysis of viruses from the first two human cases of H5N1 infection in Turkey showed they were closely related to viruses isolated at Qinghai Lake.
"Genetic relatedness of gene segments from H5N1 viruses isolated at Poyang and Qinghai Lakes strongly argues that migratory birds can transfer the virus over long distances," the authors said.
"This possibility may provide insight into reported H5N1 outbreaks in Mongolia, Siberian Russia and Europe that have been linked to migratory birds."
Earl Brown, a virologist who specializes in the evolution of influenza virus virulence, said the work done by this group helps scientists figure out what is going on with the H5N1 viruses.
"It puts details on the evolutionary story," said Brown, who is based at the University of Ottawa.
"This links the dots from southern China to this Poyang Lake to Qinghai. And then it sort of gets out from there even broader. But it's very important to know where the virus is coming from, what it's doing in the different places, like what birds (it infects) and what disease (it causes) and that sort of thing."
The study also noted there are a number of distinct clades or families of viruses in birds. Previous genetic analysis of viruses isolated from human cases showed two distinct clades.
That finding has implications for production of vaccines against H5N1, as a vaccine produced using a virus from one clade might offer at best partial protection against a virus from another.
The authors suggest multiple seed strains or vaccine starters should be made and kept at the ready. The World Health Organization actually commissioned that work last October.
A WHO avian flu expert suggested this work is a reminder of how important it is to keep on top of how the virus is evolving.
"It's very important to do this kind surveillance so that we know what's going on. And we're hopeful, since there are some clear differences, that these viruses will be made available to other investigators to do further analysis," said Michael Perdue, who is with WHO's global influenza program.
Source: The Canadian Press
Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 07 February, 2006, 11:17:44 (GMT+7)
http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=12469
Genetic analysis of H5N1 avian flu viruses collected from wild and domestic birds suggests the virus has spread in uncontrolled fashion in southern China for the past decade, igniting outbreaks in Vietnam and beyond.
A study released Monday also provides what could be a smoking gun in the heated dispute about whether migratory birds are actually playing a role in moving the virus across the globe. A number of wildlife experts have insisted migratory birds are not to blame, but this study contends genetic analysis shows there can be no other explanation.
"I've spent most of my life working with wild birds and I'm sympathetic. But you can't hide the facts that wild birds are most probably involved in the spread of this thing now," said leading avian influenza expert Dr. Robert Webster, one of the authors of the paper.
Webster and his co-authors – researchers from institutions in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia – argue the only way to minimize the damage done by the virus and reduce the risk it poses to human health is by addressing the problem at the virus's birthplace, in the poultry flocks of southern China.
"We have shown that H5N1 virus has persisted in its birthplace, southern China, for almost 10 years and has been repeatedly introduced into neighboring (e.g. Vietnam) and distant (e.g. Indonesia) regions, establishing 'colonies' of H5N1 viruses throughout Asia that directly exacerbate the pandemic threat," they said in the article, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Therefore control of this regional epizootic and its attendant pandemic threat requires that the source of virus in southern China be contained."
Doing that won't be easy, especially in light of another finding Webster and his colleagues reported.
They discovered instances where seemingly healthy chickens in Chinese poultry markets were shedding the virus. To date, chickens have been like the proverbial canaries in the coal mine with H5N1, which has killed millions of chickens across Asia.
It's not clear why the chickens didn't succumb to the virus. The authors suggest they may have been vaccinated or protected by previous exposure to a similar but not lethal virus. But one thing is clear: if chickens are able to survive infection but continue to shed the virus, tracing its spread will become much more difficult.
"It's not a case of 'there are dead birds and they are hiding it'. (That) there are no dead birds is the problem," Webster said in an interview from Hong Kong.
"The pernicious thing is that there are these perfectly healthy birds that you walk into the markets day after day after day and the virus is always there."
The researchers collected viruses over several years from wild birds in the Mai Po marshes of Hong Kong and at Poyang Lake in eastern China, and from swabs taken from apparently healthy poultry in markets across southern China.
They generated genetic sequences of the H5N1 viruses, comparing them to each other and to other previously sequenced viruses on what are called phylogenetic trees. These charts, the equivalent of a family tree, can identify where a virus came from by finding viruses to which it is most closely genetically related.
The charts the group generated suggest viruses from domestic poultry in southern China infected wild ducks in early 2005. Ducks took those viruses to Poyang Lake in eastern China and from there to Qinghai Lake in western China, more than 1,700 kilometres away. The viruses were responsible for a large die-off of wild birds at Qinghai Lake – a wild bird reserve – that occurred last May.
"That was the tipping point. The virus really got into the migratory birds at that point," Webster, who is based at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., said of the Qinghai Lake incident.
Recent analysis of viruses from the first two human cases of H5N1 infection in Turkey showed they were closely related to viruses isolated at Qinghai Lake.
"Genetic relatedness of gene segments from H5N1 viruses isolated at Poyang and Qinghai Lakes strongly argues that migratory birds can transfer the virus over long distances," the authors said.
"This possibility may provide insight into reported H5N1 outbreaks in Mongolia, Siberian Russia and Europe that have been linked to migratory birds."
Earl Brown, a virologist who specializes in the evolution of influenza virus virulence, said the work done by this group helps scientists figure out what is going on with the H5N1 viruses.
"It puts details on the evolutionary story," said Brown, who is based at the University of Ottawa.
"This links the dots from southern China to this Poyang Lake to Qinghai. And then it sort of gets out from there even broader. But it's very important to know where the virus is coming from, what it's doing in the different places, like what birds (it infects) and what disease (it causes) and that sort of thing."
The study also noted there are a number of distinct clades or families of viruses in birds. Previous genetic analysis of viruses isolated from human cases showed two distinct clades.
That finding has implications for production of vaccines against H5N1, as a vaccine produced using a virus from one clade might offer at best partial protection against a virus from another.
The authors suggest multiple seed strains or vaccine starters should be made and kept at the ready. The World Health Organization actually commissioned that work last October.
A WHO avian flu expert suggested this work is a reminder of how important it is to keep on top of how the virus is evolving.
"It's very important to do this kind surveillance so that we know what's going on. And we're hopeful, since there are some clear differences, that these viruses will be made available to other investigators to do further analysis," said Michael Perdue, who is with WHO's global influenza program.
Source: The Canadian Press
Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 07 February, 2006, 11:17:44 (GMT+7)
http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=12469
PCViking
Lutefisk Survivor
Two New Dead Swans Discovered with H5 Virus
9 February 2006 | 16:20 | FOCUS News Agency
Sofia. Another two swans were discovered whose tests react positively to the deadlier for the birds H5 virus, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Nihat Kabil announced after his meeting with the Crisis Headquarters on Bird Flu Prevention, FOCUS Agency reporter announced. The two birds were discovered in the Shabla Lake(near Varna) on 7th February. The territory in 10 km radius is monitored.
Veterinarians discovered the birds but there is no danger for them because were fully equipped. Minister Kabil announced that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry had at its disposal 5,000 prevention costumes for the doctors working in the risky areas. 2,100 of them were for single usage. They had another 3,400 lower part of the costumes, 4,500 masks and over 10,000 gloves.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=91&newsid=82345&ch=0&datte=2006-02-09
Greece Discovers Suspect Bird Flu Cases in Country's North
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=aLMlAvvCqvtI&refer=europe
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Greece discovered the H5 avian influenza strain in three swans in the northern part of the country and sent samples from the birds for testing to determine whether the virus is the lethal H5N1.
``The H5 strain was detected after examinations in three swan samples,'' Greek Agriculture Minister Evangelos Basiakos said today in an e-mailed statement.
The samples were sent to a European Union laboratory in London for further tests, Basiakos said. Results of those tests are expected in 2-8 days, he said.
Greece in October reported its first suspected bird-flu case, raising concerns that the deadly virus that's killed dozens of people in Asia had spread into the EU. The case turned out to be a false alarm.
PCViking
Lutefisk Survivor
Chthonic said:
The advent of H5N1 in Africa... where AIDS is common... puts an new twist to Bird Flu... New Freedom posted an very appropriate article yesterday:
New Freedom said:
HIV, which can linger for years... if combined with H5N1... could be the ultimate killer brew!
PCViking
Lutefisk Survivor
Deadly virus turns up in two more Nigerian states
ABUJA, Nigeria Bird flu has been found in two more Nigerian states.
That word comes a day after the country reported the first known outbreak of the virus in Africa.
Officials say the deadly H-Five-N-One strain has been confirmed at three farms in two adjoining states, in addition to yesterday's case in a third state.
Nigeria has ordered the quarantine and killing of any fowl suspected of carrying bird flu in hopes of halting its spread. Officials say bird farms across northern Nigeria are under quarantine, and a special assessment team is traveling around the region.
International health experts are also heading to Nigeria.
No human infections have been reported in the country.
http://www.wane.com/global/story.asp?s=4479278&ClientType=Printable
Suspected H5N1 Familial Cluster in Southern Iraq
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02090602/H5N1_Iraq_Cluster_South.html
Recombinomics Commentary
February 9, 2006
Three brothers of the Salam family, Karim (three years), Karar (six years) and Mehdi (seven years), who lived in the same house that Mohanad Radi 30 years, were allowed Wednesday in a hospital of Amara, to 365 km in the south of Baghdad, affirmed Mohammad Rikab, director of the department of the infectious disease.
For its part, Sabah Mehdi, which forms part of a delegation of five doctors from Baghdad, to inform itself on the spot of the medical situation, confirmed that the three brothers had the same symptoms as those having preceded death by their cousin.
The above comments describe another familial cluster in Iraq. Mohanad Radi died on Sunday and was a pigeon trader. He appears to be the same person as described in the WHO update as a 13M who died on Sunday. Media reports indicated he was 14 and his name was Mohannad Radhi Zaouri, so there seems to be one fatality in the south, but there is a discrepancy in the age.
The three brothers appear to have developed symptoms after the cousin, suggesting human-to-human transmission. This bimodal distribution of onset dates was also seen in the H5N1 cluster in northern Iraq, as well as the larger clusters in Turkey.
Prior to the cases in Turkey, the Qinghai version of H5N1 had not been confirmed to have infected people. The polymorphism HA S227N was detected in the index case in Turkey. This polymorphism had previously been shown to increase the affinity for human receptors in the respiratory tract and increased efficiency in humans was expected.
The clusters in Turkey as well as northern and southern Iraq indicate that the S227N is being transmitted and transported by wild birds, suggesting that more cases in Iraq and neighboring countries are likely.
PCViking
Lutefisk Survivor
Children tested for bird flu
From correspondents in Sambawa Farm, Nigeria
February 10, 2006
NIGERIAN health workers are to test two children who fell sick on their father's poultry farm to find out if they have been infected with bird flu, a state official said today.
"We have received a complaint ... from a farmer that the doves, geese and chickens he is raising are dying rapidly and his two kids are sick. They are coughing blood," said Sa'idu Baba Chori, a Kaduna State agriculture official.
"We're now going there to take samples of the birds for laboratory analysis. The kids will also be examined to diagnose the nature of their ailment," he told reporters outside Sambawa Farm, in northern Nigeria.
The new suspected outbreak which may have affected the children is nearby, on the outskirts of the city of Kaduna, he said.
Sambawa is one of four Nigerian farms now known to have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which can be transmitted from birds to humans and has killed 88 people in Asia and Turkey since 1997.
Yesterday, Nigerian officials confirmed that they had found the first case of the disease in Africa after 45,000 chickens fell sick and died in Sambawa. They are putting measures in place to contain the outbreak.
http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,18101391-5001028,00.html
35 suspected of bird flu in China
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18101386%5E1702,00.html
This story is from our news.com.au network
Source: AFP
From correspondents in Beijing
February 10, 2006
HEALTH authorities in northern China have placed 35 people under observation after 15,000 fowl died of bird flu on the farm where they were working, state media said today.
The Xinhua news agency, citing government sources in Shanxi province, said the 35 workers had been confined to their homes in Yangquan city and were receiving twice-daily medical check-ups.
Authorities have confirmed that the H5N1 strain of bird flu killed 15,000 head of poultry on their farm and said 187,745 more had been culled in the affected area to prevent the disease spreading.
Yesterday, the health ministry announced China's 11th human case of bird flu. The 26-year-old woman, surnamed Lin, from the eastern province of Fujian, tested positive for H5N1 after being hospitalised with fever and pneumonia on January 10, but was in a stable condition, it said.
Bird flu has killed seven people in China.
The Fujian Daily reported today that Ms Lin was out of quarantine and expected to leave hospital soon.
Like most of the other human cases in China, no outbreak among animals was detected in Zhangpu county where Ms Lin lived, emphasising the inability of authorities to effectively monitor the disease.
The Fujian provincial agricultural department has collected 319 poultry samples within a three-kilometre radius of Ms Lin's home, but all have tested negative, the Fujian Daily said.
Julie Hall, a Beijing-based World Health Organisation (WHO) expert, said that although the WHO was still awaiting information about what caused the latest human infection, the case appeared to have followed a familiar pattern.
"What we've seen in quite a number of other cases in China is that the Ministry of Agriculture has not been able to identify viruses in the animals in that area," Ms Hall said.
"But there certainly have been reports from the health authorities and patients themselves that animals in their areas have been dying and have been sick for some weeks prior to their onset of their illness."
Ms Hall said she was not surprised by the latest case.
"We believe the virus is endemic in parts of China and certainly endemic in the wild birds. Many poultry flocks in China remain vulnerable to infections."
China has reported 34 H5N1 outbreaks among poultry since the beginning of last year, with most appearing since October.
"We would anticipate that there would be a continued number of these types of cases, unfortunately, throughout the winter," Ms Hall said.
The WHO says of the 165 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans detected since 2003, 88 people have died. Most of the victims have been in Asia, although four have died this year in Turkey and two in northern Iraq.
The World Organisation for Animal Health confirmed yesterday H5N1 had been detected for the first time in Africa, wiping out 40,000 battery hens on a farm in northern Nigeria.
PCViking
Lutefisk Survivor
Violence, misinformation hamper control of bird flu in Iraq
PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer February 9, 2006 1:56 PM
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Some Iraqi farmers are letting their birds loose rather than slaughter them and the lack of a proper shipping container has kept the tissue sample of a man suspected of dying of bird flu sitting in Baghdad despite reports it was being tested abroad.
Poor communications, scarce equipment and the dangers of the insurgency are all plaguing efforts to combat bird flu in Iraq.
In Nigeria, meanwhile, the deadly H5N1 strain has been detected in two more northern states and has been killing birds - some 100,000 - for weeks, Nigerian authorities said Thursday, raising fears the disease will spread elsewhere in Africa.
Officials say containing the spread of bird flu in Iraq may be beyond the capabilities of health authorities in some parts of the country, particularly volatile Anbar province, center stage of the insurgency.
''Iraq is a special case and has its unique challenges that are especially difficult, obviously because it is a complex environment,'' World Health Organization spokesman Dick Thompson said from neighboring Jordan.
So far, Iraq's only confirmed human case is a 15-year-old girl who died Jan. 17 in the northern Kurdistan region, Iraq's most stable area with a functioning local administration.
But Iraq has been slow to send samples of other suspect cases - including the girl's uncle, who died Jan. 27 - to WHO-certified laboratories in London and Cairo, Egypt, despite saying for more than a week that the shipment had been delivered.
''We didn't have the containers to ship the samples and without them, they wouldn't have been accepted for shipment,'' Dr. Ibtisam Aziz Ali, spokeswoman for a government committee handling the bird flu crisis, acknowledged Thursday.
She did not say why it had taken so long for Iraq to obtain the containers or explain earlier statements that the samples had been sent. Thompson said the U.N. health agency would send Iraq several containers.
Partial testing of tissue samples taken from humans suspected of having bird flu can be performed at Baghdad's central laboratories, but final verification of the presence of the H5N1 strain must be done by a WHO-approved lab.
Elsewhere, Indonesia said Thursday that two women from the same town have contracted the virus. WHO has so far confirmed 24 human cases in Indonesia, not including the two women.
Nigeria quarantined bird farms throughout its north, and neighboring countries banned poultry imports to try to halt the spread of the virus on a poor continent little prepared to cope with an outbreak of the disease.
The head of the World Health Organization warned that health services across West Africa should be on high alert.
''The confirmation of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry in Africa is a cause for great concern and demands immediate action,'' said WHO Director-General Dr. Lee Jong-wook. ''The H5N1 virus now confirmed in Nigeria poses a risk to human health and livelihood.''
The single most important priority is to warn people about the dangers of close contact with sick or dying birds infected with H5N1, Lee said in a statement.
In Iraq, a six-member WHO delegation, accompanied by two veterinarian scientists from a U.S. Navy lab in Cairo, visited a hospital in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, where a Kurdish health official said 10 people suffering bird flu-like symptoms were admitted. Members also traveled to Raniya, the town where the dead girl had lived.
Many factors complicate Iraqi efforts to battle the outbreak, such as broken infrastructure, an unstable central government, shaky communication networks and constant violence. Inconsistent and contradictory information is also being released by local, regional and national authorities daily.
On Tuesday, health officials in the southern city of Amarah said they were investigating the suspicious death of a 14-year-old pigeon seller who suffered bird flu-like symptoms. On Thursday, Amarah authorities said three of the dead boy's cousins - two brothers and their sister - have been hospitalized with similar symptoms.
In Baghdad, vendors set free or gave away scores of birds Thursday as bird flu fears spread. Baghdad's poultry market, Souq al-Ghazzal, has come to a near standstill with people too scared to buy or sell fowl.
''I let my 60 lovebirds go free because I was scared some infected birds would mix with mine and spread bird flu,'' said Mohammed Jabbar, who collects birds.
In the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, police used loudspeakers to urge people to kill all their birds after hospital officials said a woman was admitted to a hospital suffering symptoms similar to bird flu.
Because of the greater security existing in Kurdistan, health officials were better able to control the spread of the disease and quarantine suspect towns. But doing the same in towns like Fallujah is virtually impossible because of the militant activity.
AP-WS-02-09-06 1656EST
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564679300797041045
Bird disease in flu-hit Nigeria "spreading like wildfire"
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/060209/1/3yld6.html
Thursday February 9, 6:45 PM
As Nigeria scrambled to deal with Africa's first confirmed case of deadly bird flu, a farmer's representative said thousands of poultry had died of disease further north.
Identified earlier this week as "fowl cholera", the disease was spreading rapidly through farms in Kano State, killing tens of thousands of chickens, Auwalu Haruna, secretary of the Kano State poultry farmers' association, said.
Nigeria announced Wednesday that Africa's first confirmed case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu -- which can be fatal to humans -- had been found in Sambawa Farm in Kaduna State, 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Abuja.
The disease in Kano "is spreading like wildfire," Haruna told AFP.
"We have 20,000 new infections reported today, bringing the figure for infected birds to 80,000. What worsens the situation is the movement of infected poultry, in a frantic effort to minimise losses," he said.
Haruna and several market stall holders told AFP that once chickens are infected farmers are killing them and rapidly dumping them on the market in an effort to beat any future quarantine and make a quick profit.
"The announcement by the federal government of bird flu at Sambawa Farm shocked us, but we are just waiting for confirmation from the veterinary institute in Vom for our birds," Haruna said.
Prices of chickens in Kano have dropped by two thirds since thousands of birds began dying of the mystery infection.
International experts from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation were expected to arrive in Nigeria on Thursday following the news of the bird flu outbreak.
Nigeria's Agriculture Minister Adamu Bello promised Wednesday that a massive effort to quarantine farms and cull sick birds would be rapidly put into place to contain the outbreak, but there was no sign of that on the ground.