02/27 | Daily Bird Flu Thread: Housewife latest victim of virus

Link to yesterday's thread: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=187691

Since January, 2004 WHO has reported human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) in the following countries:

* East Asia and the Pacific:
o Cambodia
o China
o Indonesia
o Thailand
o Vietnam

* Europe & Eurasia:
o Turkey
* Near East:
o Iraq
(see preliminary report)

Since December 2003, avian influenza A (H5N1) infections in poultry or wild birds have been reported in the following countries:

* Africa:
o Nigeria
* East Asia & the Pacific:
o Cambodia
o China
o Hong Kong (SARPRC)
o Indonesia
o Japan
o Laos
o Malaysia
o Mongolia
o Thailand
o Vietnam

* Europe & Eurasia:
o Austria
o Azerbaijan
o Bosnia & Herzegovina (H5)
o Bulgaria
o Croatia
o France
o Germany
o Greece
o Italy
o Romania
o Russia
o Slovenia
o Turkey
o Ukraine
* Near East:
o Egypt
o Iraq (H5)
o Iran
* South Asia:
o India
o Kazakhstan

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/outbreaks/current.htm#animals

Indonesia

Sunday 26th February 2006

Housewife latest victim of virus​

PARIS: The first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu to strike a European Union farm was confirmed yesterday, as Indonesia's flu death toll hit the 20 mark with confirmation that a young woman had succumbed to the virus.

Eight EU countries have so far confirmed cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, but all these cases had been found in wild birds.

The confirmation by French officials that the deadly H5N1 strain had been found in domestic turkeys found dead in eastern France was the first outbreak on a farm in the European Union.

The World Health Organisation has reported contamination by the deadly form of the virus in 13 new countries in February.

The confirmation of the H5N1 outbreak at the French farm came just hours before President Jacques Chirac inaugurated the annual agricultural show in Paris, this year bereft of poultry.

Chirac munched on a piece of chicken that came from the area where the infected turkeys were found and tried to reassure salon-goers that consuming poultry and eggs was safe despite the inexorable spread of the virus.

"There is no interest in provoking a pyschosis, a panic, it's scandalous," he said.

Indonesia's human death toll from bird flu meanwhile hit the 20 mark yesterday with confirmation that a 27-year-old woman had succumbed to the H5N1 virus.

The woman, a housewife who had direct contact with her neighbour's chickens, was admitted to a Jakarta hospital last Monday and died the same day, officials said.

In India, animal health officials have expanded a zone for slaughtering chickens in the west of the country after the discovery of a second outbreak of bird flu.

Chickens at two farms in Gujarat state near the Maharashtra state border town of Navapur, the epicentre of the initial outbreak, were confirmed positive with the H5N1 strain yesterday.

Ninety five tests on people suspected of carrying the flu following confirmation of the first outbreak had been negative. The announcement eased fears the infection might have spread to humans.

In Malaysia, five people have been quarantined with suspected flu as chicken sales plunged 30 per cent following a new outbreak of the virus.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=136545&Sn=WORL&IssueID=28343

Chikungunya

Chikungunya is one of the diseases which some believe to be an intentional misdiagnosis of Avian Influenza.

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/10260508/H5N1_Casual_Thailand_Indonesia.html

Casual Transmission of H5N1 in Thailand and Indonesia

Recombinomics Commentary
October 26, 2005

The three French tourists who tested positive for H5N1 after visiting a bird park in Thailand clearly show that H5N1 in Thailand is transmitted by casual contact. H5N1 positive data suggest that hundreds or thousands of visitors would have also been infected by the H5N1 at the zoo. However, these infectiosn produced mild cases, which were tested early because they had returned to the French Island of Reunion from Thailand.

An important thing to nore about Chikungunya, is that Chikungunya is mosquito borne... not H2H http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/msds-ftss/msds172e.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mosquito-borne illness travels from Reunion to France​

Posted on : Sun, 26 Feb 2006 22:04:00 GMT | Author : Brian Holmes
News Category : Health

Already reeling under the threat of bird flu, France also has one more headache to take care of – chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease that has affected a large population of Reunion in the Indian Ocean and has been carried into France by those who visited the island.

Around 30 cases of chikungunya have been detected in France, Dr Francois Bricaire, who heads infectious diseases in Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris, said. “We have people coming back from Reunion island who have the symptoms of chikungunya and with diagnostics that have confirmed it,” he said. “It's not surprising, quite simply because of the contacts between the island of La Reunion and mainland France,” he added.

The mysterious disease has infected over 15,700 citizens, or 20 per cent of the population of Reunion, 77 of which have died due to the disease. French health minister Xavier Bertrand said that the fact that the disease can claim lives is a “radically new situation, that was not anticipated or foreseen by any scientific theory, according to which chikungunya does not kill.”
Cases of the disease have also been reported in Mauritius, Madagascar and Seychelles. Characterized by high fever and severe rashes, the disease is an extremely painful one. However, in a majority of cases, the victims are cured.

Rubbishing criticism that France was not taking the disease seriously enough, French authorities have sent 500 troops to help clean the island of mosquitoes. In addition, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is also scheduled to visit Reunion between Sunday and Monday. He, however, sought to soothe fears among the tourism circuit that has suffered due to cancellations of trips to the Reunion.

“You can certainly go there. The proof is that I'm going there. You have to take some precautions and use certain products,” de Villepin said. But no vaccination for the disease has been developed yet. According to Villepin's office, the prime minister will also 'announce the reinforcement of aid on staff and equipment for the populations to fight the epidemic' during his visit.

Meanwhile, a World Health Organization (WHO) team would head for Reunion to assess the situation and gauge the efforts that are being made to contain the epidemic. The team would visit neighboring islands to monitor the situation as well. “Because there's a lot of movement of people between the islands in the region, there is a risk of it spreading,” said Fadela Chaib, a spokesperson for WHO.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/5535.html

USA

Bird flu watchers keep eye on Alaska​

The migratory patterns of wild birds intersect there. When the birds leave, will they bring H5N1 to North America?

By LISA GREENE, Times Staff Writer
Published February 26, 2006

In a few weeks, as the sun begins to warm and the days lengthen, the birds will start taking flight.

By the end of March, thousands upon thousands - ducks, geese, sandpipers - will begin their annual trek north, toward Alaska.

Scientists hope they won't be carrying the notorious bird flu virus with them.

But as world health officials look toward Europe in alarm, where bird flu is spreading among wild birds faster than anyone expected, some U.S. scientists are looking half the world away, to Alaska.

Alaska is the crossroads of three of the world's great migratory flyways. Birds from Asia and North America mingle here, winging across continents to find the perfect bird nursery. Predators are few, tasty insects plentiful and sunlit hours long enough for plenty of baby feeding time.

"Alaska in the summer is a great place to be a bird," said Rick Kearney, wildlife coordinator for the U.S. Geological Survey.

But this year, the ingredients that make Alaska bird paradise could also bring trouble. Scientists fear that the deadly strain of bird flu spreading from Asia could hitch a ride to Alaska on the wings of migrating birds.

Then, when summer ends and birds begin to fly south, birds infected in Alaska could fly south to the continental United States.

"The opportunity for movement of the virus is probably stronger here than anywhere else in North America," said Kevin Winker, an associate professor and curator of birds at the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks.

Winker has been testing birds for bird flu since 1998, drawn here by the chance to study more than 450 different bird species.

But in the past, Winker and his colleagues have tested about 1,500 to 3,000 birds a year.

This year's tally could reach 20,000.

Federal officials plan an enormous effort, partnering the University of Alaska with the federal departments of agriculture and the interior.

"That's the most logical place for avian influenza to show up," said Kearney, who also now co-chairs the Interagency Working Group for the Early Detection of Asian H5N1 in Wild Birds.

"All eyes are on Alaska."

H5N1 is the deadly strain of bird flu that first appeared in Hong Kong in 1997. A campaign to kill infected birds stopped the virus then, but it re-emerged in Asia in 2003. Since then, it has crept across Asia, killing people who became infected through contact with birds, usually chickens in their family flocks. So far, more than 90 people have died.

This year, bird flu has spread with greater speed, killing four people in Turkey. Just this month, the virus has showed up in birds in 13 different countries, from Nigeria to Italy to France.

As the sick birds have multiplied, so too has the alarm. Even the famous ravens who live in the Tower of London have been moved inside.

The spread of the virus among migrating birds still doesn't pose the same public health threat as the potential spread among people. Most flu experts agree that the greatest chance for bird flu to threaten U.S. residents will occur if the virus gains the ability to jump from person to person.

So far, that hasn't happened. Those who have fallen ill have had direct contact with birds. Scientists don't know when - or if - the virus will ever gain that ability. If it does, that would set the stage for a global epidemic, and it most likely would start in Asia.

But U.S. scientists believe the spread of bird flu among wild birds poses a danger.

"Many of the other diseases that pop up in public concern are sort of flavor-of-the-month club that don't kill a lot of people - Ebola, SARS, monkeypox," Winker said. A true flu pandemic could kill anywhere from 2-million to 100-million people worldwide, scientists estimate. "This disease is a real killer. We do need to keep our guard up."

Once the virus enters the United States in a few wild birds, it likely will spread to others. Wild animals could be threatened. So could commercial poultry and farm animals, although experts stress the risk of that is low.

Wild birds spread the disease easily among themselves because they carry the virus in their digestive tract. Water becomes contaminated, and then other birds get infected by eating and drinking there.

There are many bird flu strains, and usually waterbirds, such as ducks, geese and swans, carry them without becoming sick. But H5N1 is different. Dead swans in Italy and Greece have tested positive.

That's just one of the things that puzzles scientists. In summer 2005, the virus spread north and west across Asia, against migratory routes.

Since last fall, the spread among wild birds has followed those routes, but questions remain.

"I would have expected more outbreaks in Africa than we've seen, if wild birds were an effective spreader of the virus," Kearney said. "It could be that sick birds don't fly far - that they didn't survive long enough to finish their migration."

Or it could be that scientists know less about how birds migrate than they thought. Another possibility is that humans have transported infected poultry.

"Most of the spread is what people do wrong," said veterinarian Gary Butcher, professor of avian pathology at the University of Florida. "Moving chickens improperly from farm to farm, or moving chicken coops or feed trucks."

Butcher just returned from a trip to Russia, advising on how to make commercial chicken farms safer. In a few days, he leaves to do the same in Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

"Everybody seems to be very, very nervous," Butcher said.

Scientists also are unsure what will happen if the virus comes to North American wild birds.

"There's been a lot of debate about the role that migratory birds are or might play in spreading the disease," said veterinarian Ron DeHaven, administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

If the virus is found in Alaska, DeHaven says it would likely spread first down the Pacific coast, because more birds there migrate to Alaska. Winker, meanwhile, said it "will spread across North America quickly, because waterfowl cover the continent."

But veterinarian David Stallknecht, who has studied bird flu in wild birds for more than 20 years, took a different view. Stallknecht said the virus also could come to North America from the east, because migratory paths also cross in Canada.

"The farther that virus spreads westward in Eurasia, the more likely there would be potential contact with the East Coast," he said.

Still, Stallknecht said, if North American birds become infected in Canada, that doesn't mean they'll spread the virus south. Milder bird flu strains already follow a pattern, said Stallknecht, also an associate professor of population health at the University of Georgia.

"The high infection rates in North America are associated with northern latitudes," he said. "You get down to Georgia and Florida, and the prevalence is next to nothing."

Birds go north in summer, become infected, pass the virus to other birds, and then the outbreak dies down before they fly south, Stallknecht said.

If U.S. wild birds are infected, federal officials fear the virus could spread to commercial poultry. But they stress that the U.S. poultry industry, with its cooped chickens and separate farms, are far different from Asia's family flocks. U.S. chickens have less contact with both wild birds and with people.

"The potential for this virus to have an impact on commercial poultry production is significant," DeHaven said. "Having said that, we have been dealing with (milder) avian influenza viruses for decades . . . finding it, containing it, and eradicating it."

In Florida, commercial farms are home to more than 31-million chickens. State agriculture officials have nearly quadrupled virus testing of commercial farms, state fairs and other locations and plan to test about 15,000 birds this year.

Butcher said fear will likely hurt the poultry industry more than the virus itself. Although the virus is killed by cooking, poultry consumption has dropped in countries where the virus has appeared.

"No humans have gotten bird flu from migratory birds," he said. "No humans have gotten it from buying a commercial chicken. But it is causing a panic."

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/26/news_pf/Worldandnation/Bird_flu_watchers_kee.shtml

PCViking, is that 30 countries?

Three days ago it was 27. Three more countries in as many days.


Seabird

Nigeria confirms occurrence of bird flu in two new states​

http://english.people.com.cn/200602/27/eng20060227_246293.html

Bird flu has been found in two new states in Nigeria, which reported Africa's first cases of the disease in birds, an official statement said on Sunday.

"Following ... confirmatory tests in samples ... the Presidential Committee of the Prevention and Management of Avian Flu confirms the occurrence of the avian flu in two new States," said the statement issued by the Avian Flu Crisis Management Center.

The outbreak in the northeastern state of Yobe and central state of Yobe Nasarawa brought to nine the number of locations already identified with the disease in west African country.

"The presidential committee will offer support to these States by providing personal protective equipment to aid proper management of the outbreak and training/enlightenment of local veterinary officials, poultry farmers and other stakeholders," the statement said.

It said the northwest state of Zamfara was also "at risk because of its contiguity to other states where the outbreak had been recorded."

On Wednesday, Mohammed Belhocine, the World Health Organization 's representative in Nigeria said by telephone that Nigeria was testing one old woman who died last week and two kids to find out whether they are the first human cases of the bird flu in Africa.

The statement, however, reiterated "that there are, presently, no reported cases of the avian flu virus in human beings in Nigeria."

Nigeria is the first country on the African continent to report an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus which has claimed at least 92 lives, mostly in Asia, since 1997.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned on Wednesday the bird flu continues to spread in Nigeria and could cause "a regional disaster."

Source: Xinhua

More bird flu found in Germany​

http://www.irishexaminer.com/pport/web/Full_Story/did-sgwDzLY0-1T9QsgdL11Zs5FWAE.asp

THREE more wild birds in north-eastern Germany have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, authorities said yesterday, bringing to 117 the total number of infected birds found in the region.

Germany's first cases of the virus, announced on February 14, were on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, which still accounts for most of the confirmed cases.

Since then, the virus also has been detected in nearby mainland areas. Yesterday, the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania said the H5N1 strain had been confirmed in two more swans and a Canada goose on the mainland.

The virus also has been found in wild birds in other parts of Germany. On Saturday, authorities in the eastern state of Brandenburg said two cases were found around the town of Schwedt, near the Polish border.

Officials also said tests confirmed that a wild duck found near Lake Constance, which Germany shares with Switzerland and Austria, carried H5N1.

The virus has not yet been found in domestic poultry in Germany.

In Switzerland, an H5 subtype of bird flu has been found in a dead duck in Geneva.

Meanwhile, French president Jacques Chirac has told consumers not to panic over the discovery of the deadly H5N1 strain on a turkey farm. It is the first time a farm in the EU has been affected. France already had cases in wild ducks.

In China, two people diagnosed with bird flu remained in critical condition yesterday as authorities published plans to cope with sudden medical emergencies.

Yes,

and TODAY approximately 1500 Americans have died or will die from Heart Disease.


Lets keep this fear mongering in perspective shall we?

Children "most at risk" of contagion from bird-flu​

http://www.24dash.com/content/news/viewNews.php?navID=47&newsID=3427

Publisher: Keith Hall
Published: 27/02/2006 - 00:53:47 AM
Printable version
Send to a friend

The European Union is stepping up birdflu warnings - particularly to children - as the disease continues its spread across Europe.

With a new suspected outbreak tonight amongst wild birds in France, and tests awaited on a feared case of the deadly H5NI strain in Switzerland, the Austrian government, currently in the EU presidency, is co-ordinating a new information campaign.

Experts were resigned to continued outbreaks of the disease in the bird population, and attention is now turning to ensuring that humans take all necessary precautions against contagion.

So far there is no evidence that the disease has mutated into one which can be transmitted between humans.

But about 90 people have died in South East Asia after catching H5N1 from infected birds, and earlier this year, two children from a farming family in Turkey died from the disease after close direct contact with dead birds.

Now a new information campaign will remind children in particular to keep away from wild birds, such as the migratory swans and a handful of ducks which so far have been the carriers of the disease into the European Union.

The biggest puzzle in the spread of the disease so far is how the H5NI strain broke out on a commercial indoor turkey farm near Lyons in France - where direct contact with wild birds was apparently impossible.

Tonight's further outbreak in France in the same area added to concern that the emergence of bird flu in Britain is only a matter of time - although British government ministers emphasise that it is still not "inevitable".

No more meetings of EU veterinary experts on bird flu are currently planned - although that could change if more cases break out.

Two days ago EU health ministers gathered in Vienna and agreed that Austria - one of eight EU countries so far hit by bird flu - would co-ordinate a Europe-wide campaign of advice cautioning against contact with sick wild or domestic birds.

Austrian health minister Maria Rauch-Kallat said there was an "information deficit" which risked helping the spread of the H5N1 to humans.

Children are considered most at risk, through playing near potentially contaminated birds.

Obvious other high-risk categories including vets and animal welfare workers will also be the focus of the information campaign.

Meanwhile, the European Commission's official advice remains unchanged - preventive measures are in place, and there is no need to panic, according to EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou.

Seabird said:

PCViking, is that 30 countries?

Three days ago it was 27. Three more countries in as many days.


Seabird

Click to expand...

per the CDC link... I knew I'd seen the official tally somewhere... I assume tomorrow they'll add Switzerland?

dragonslayer2001 said:

and TODAY approximately 1500 Americans have died or will die from Heart Disease.


Lets keep this fear mongering in perspective shall we?

Click to expand...

The 'daily bird flu thread' is a place where TBers can share info we've found on bird flu: be it information on bird and/or human cases, economic and/or social impact. The threads are also linked so any reader can walk back through them and follow the history and development of this phenomenon.

For the most part, the 'daily bird flu thread' is articles with some people making comments. It's like TBers creating a time capsule of H5N1 Avian Influenza.

THIS IS NOT A CONSPIRACY THREAD. If all or most of the news was USA MSM in origin, then I'd wonder... but, most of the news is foreign, and from countries that do not dance to 'W's flute. That in itself gives credence to what's happening. If Al Gore or the Bilderbergers or the Illumanati were behind the Bird Flu, it still would not change the fact that this is effecting our lives, and will effect our lives. In 2003 SARS only killed a handful of people in Asia and Canada, but it brought on a Pacific Rim recession and greatly effected our BF coverage/coverup today. Watching nations now, scrambling, announching, denying... whatever... there is no question that something is going on. Maybe a sixth of the worlds population will die of this, maybe not... but for sure it will effect each of our lives in some way... that's what this thread is all about... fellow TBers documenting the advent of bird flu.

If you want to persue, anti-bird flu or bird flu conspiracy comments... do so in the conspiracy theory areas or threads, they are not welcome here.

-ciao

Astrakhan Mute Swan H5N1 Acquisition of Human Sequences​

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02260601/H5N1_Astrakhan_Human.html

Recombinomics Commentary
February 26, 2006

As the Qinghai strain of H5N1 spreads in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, sequences from isolates are appearing at Genbank. Russia, Italy, and France are placing sequences at public databases shortly after Isolation. 2006 isolates from Nigeria, France, and Italy have already been deposited. These are partial sequences of one or two genes. Russia has also been quickly putting sequences on deposit. The latest series are from 6 mute swan isolates in Astrakhan. Although the deposits are closely related to the Qinghai isolates, they also have polymorphisms appended onto the Qinghai genetic background. These acquired polymorphisms are not random mutations. They are polymorphisms that are acquired via recombination. The acquisition of clustered polymorphisms provides strong evidence that the polymorphism are not due to recent mutations.

One of the first cluster noted were the PB2 polymorphisms on all 16 isolates from Qinghai Lake. These three polymorphisms were also on H1, H2, and H3 isolates from European swine, as well as a child in China who had been infected with a swine H3N2. There have since been a number of PB2 sequences published and all Qinghai related sequences have E627K. However, only the 16 isolates from Qinghai Lake have the 3 clustered polymorphism shared with European swine.

Another cluster of polymorphisms were also on PB2 but were unique to the isolates from Astrakhan. The two polymorphisms were 23 BP apart and 5 of the 6 isolates have both and the other had one. These two polymorphisms were found in a broad spectrum of bird serotypes. But all isolates were from North America suggesting the Qinghai strain of H5N1 has already migrated to North America.

There are 8 PB1 polymorphisms in these isolates that are not found on other Qinghai strains. the polymorhisms are in at least 5 of the 6 Astrakhan isolates. One of these polymorphisms is similar to the two on PB2. All recent isolates with this polymorphism are from North America. However, this polymorphism is found in earlier human isolates. They are specific for H2N2 from 1957 to 1968 and H3N2 from 1968 to 1976. Another polymorphisms is also found in human isolates. In addition to these two regional specific isolates are two more that a 5 bp apart (C2107T and C2112T). These two polymorphisms are found in other isolates and all are H1N1. These include the most recent H1N1 isolates on deposit at Los Alamos and extend back to 1934. In addition there is one isolated from a 1998 Ontario mallard as well as a 1982 Mongolian camel. Thus, although the two polymorphism and upstream sequence (18 BP probe) has been limited to H1N1 isolates, it is present on the same five Astrakhan H5N1 isolates that share polymorphism from North America. The isolates with the paired PB1 polymorphism are listed below.

The acquisition of these human polymorphisms is cause for concern. These acquisitions create longer regions of identity with human influenza sequences, which increase the likelihood of additional recombinations. The acquisition of human polymorphisms in isolates from Vietnam and Thailand has been noted as have the acquisition of European swine sequences.

The acquisition of multiple human polymorphisms on PB1 and PB2 are cause for concern.

DQ343505 A/Cygnus olor/Astrakhan/Ast05-2-2/2005 2005 H5N1
DQ363915 A/Cygnus olor/Astrakhan/Ast05-2-4/2005 2005 H5N1
DQ365008 A/Cygnus olor/Astrakhan/Ast05-2-5/2005 2005 H5N1
DQ365000 A/Cygnus olor/Astrakhan/Ast05-2-6/2005 2005 H5N1
DQ363920 A/Cygnus olor/Astrakhan/Ast05-2-7/2005 2005 H5N1
CY007473 A/Canterbury/106/2004 2004 H1N1
CY002990 A/New York/221/2003 2003 H1N1
CY002686 A/New York/222/2003 2003 H1N1
CY002694 A/New York/223/2003 2003 H1N1
CY002542 A/New York/227/2003 2003 H1N1
CY003302 A/New York/228/2003 2003 H1N1
CY002630 A/New York/230/2003 2003 H1N1
CY003382 A/New York/292/2003 2003 H1N1
CY003390 A/New York/293/2003 2003 H1N1
CY002710 A/New York/348/2003 2003 H1N1
CY006433 A/New York/350/2003 2003 H1N1
CY002814 A/New York/399/2003 2003 H1N1
CY008530 A/New York/483/2003 2003 H1N1
CY003694 A/New York/486/2003 2003 H1N1
CY006921 A/New York/488/2003 2003 H1N1
CY006673 A/New York/493/2003 2003 H1N1
CY003710 A/New York/496/2003 2003 H1N1
CY006201 A/New York/497/2003 2003 H1N1
CY002534 A/New York/220/2002 2002 H1N1
CY003310 A/New York/291/2002 2002 H1N1
CY006681 A/New York/494/2002 2002 H1N1
CY001958 A/New York/205/2001 2001 H1N1
CY002622 A/New York/208/2001 2001 H1N1
CY006425 A/New York/212/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003006 A/New York/239/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003014 A/New York/241/2001 2001 H1N1
CY006361 A/New York/242/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003022 A/New York/246/2001 2001 H1N1
CY002574 A/New York/281/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003318 A/New York/302/2001 2001 H1N1
CY006369 A/New York/303/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003398 A/New York/305/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003406 A/New York/306/2001 2001 H1N1
CY002806 A/New York/308/2001 2001 H1N1
CY006881 A/New York/309/2001 2001 H1N1
CY002678 A/New York/310/2001 2001 H1N1
CY002702 A/New York/312/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003030 A/New York/341/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003326 A/New York/342/2001 2001 H1N1
CY002398 A/New York/343/2001 2001 H1N1
CY006785 A/New York/344/2001 2001 H1N1
CY002406 A/New York/345/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003334 A/New York/346/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003470 A/New York/442/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003478 A/New York/443/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003294 A/New York/444/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003839 A/New York/445/2001 2001 H1N1
CY003486 A/New York/446/2001 2001 H1N1
CY006177 A/New York/447/2001 2001 H1N1
CY002646 A/New York/233/2000 2000 H1N1
CY002654 A/New York/234/2000 2000 H1N1
CY004513 A/mallard/Alberta/201/1998 1998 H1N1
AF398865 A/Charlottesville/31/95 1995 H1N1
X66320 A/Chile/1/83 1983 H1N1
M73973 A/camel/Mongolia/82 1982 H1N1
CY008994 A/Denver/57 1957 H1N1
M25932 A/Beijing/11/56 1956 H1N1
X99037 A/Fort Monmouth/1/47 1947 H1N1
NC_002021 A/Puerto Rico/8/34 1934 H1N1
AF389116 A/Puerto Rico/8/34/Mount Sinai 1934 H1N1

=



<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Three die of bird flu in Indonesia</font>

27.02.2006, 06.33
<A href="http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=3659175&PageNum=0">www.itar-tass.com</a></center></b>
KUALA LUMPUR, February 27 (Itar-Tass) -- A young man died of bird flu in the Indonesian city of Bandung on Sunday bringing the death toll of the last three days to three.

The Antara news agency said six locals, including a child, were hospitalized with bird flu symptoms over the weekend in Bandung, the administrative center of the West Jawa Province.

=




<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>The accelerating spread of bird flu </font>

Feb 27 2006
Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail
<A href="http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/health/tm_objectid=16752006%26method=full%26siteid=50082%26headline=the%2d%2daccelerating%2dspread%2dof%2dbird%2dflu-name_page.html">icwales.icnetwork.co.uk</a></center>
BIRD FLU has swept across the globe over the course of last week, with countries not yet affected taking increasingly stringent measures to protect themselves:

Monday - India continues a major cull of chickens after H5N1 was found in 30,000 birds in Navapur; bird flu is confirmed in two more states in Nigeria; Belgium vaccinates exotic birds at Antwerp Zoo.</b>

Tuesday - 22 new cases of H5N1 are found in wild birds in Germany; three dead swans found in Hungary are infected; Croatia confirms its second outbreak in wild fowl.

Wednesday - A 27-year-old woman dies of bird flu in Indonesia; bird flu detected in three poultry farms in Russia; bird flu found in birds at an animal shelter in Austria.

Thursday - Second case ofavian flu in wild ducks in France; a northern state of Germany confirms bird flu has been found in domestic birds; seven more cases in wild birds in Greece.

Friday - H5N1 virus reported in turkey farm in France; first two cases in Slovakia; three wild birds test positive in Hong Kong; Iraq links deaths of a girl and her uncle in January to H5N1-infected poultry.

=



<B><center>February 27, 2006 Monday Muharram 28, 1427

<font size=+1 color=green>First bird flu case in Geneva</font>

<A href="http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/27/int8.htm">www.dawn.com</a></center>
GENEVA, Feb 26: Switzerland confirmed on Sunday its first outbreak of avian flu in a wild duck on the shores of Geneva, near the city’s famous jet d’eau fountain.</b>

Swiss officials said it was not yet clear if the bird, found on Wednesday floating between two boats next to the jet d’eau pier, was infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

“We have a first case of bird flu. It’s H5,” Federal Veterinary Office spokeswoman Cathy Maret said, adding a sample has been sent to a European reference laboratory in Britain to test for the H5N1 strain in the duck.

Results are expected at the weekend, he said. Switzerland has been on high alert for bird flu since the virus emerged in neighbours France, Germany, Austria and Italy.—Reuters

=



<B><center>February 27, 2006

<font size=+1 color=purple>War on bird flu continues </font>

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
<A href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailcity.asp?fileid=20060227.G02&irec=2">www.thejakartapost.com</a></center>
Vowing to continue the war against bird flu, the Jakarta administration has completed a three-day door-to-door check on poultry and pet birds during which 5,026 birds and chickens were culled, an official said Sunday.

The door-to-door inspection by the 600-strong bird flu team started Friday. The team scoured 55 subdistricts in 42 districts throughout the capital.</b>

From a total of 117,840 fowls tested, 37 were found to have the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

"There are 2,553 feces samples that will be taken to our laboratory to be tested further," head of Jakarta Husbandry Agency, Edy Setiarto, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

"We cannot promise when we'll get the test results. We will deliver those samples to the Veterinary Research Centers in Bogor and Ragunan in the next two days," he said.

Edy said during the inspection his teams did not encounter any resistance from bird lovers or chicken breeders who refused to have their fowls tested.

"I am glad because the public welcomed us. Most of them appreciated the inspections," Edy added.

The teams will conduct inspections in Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands) on Monday. The islands were excluded from Friday and Saturday's simultaneous inspections due to bad weather.

During the door-to-door inspection, several teams immediately culled the chickens and birds that tested positive for bird flu. Earlier, an official had told The Post that they would not kill infected fowls until laboratory tests on feces samples confirmed they had bird flu.

"Although we can get the results in about 10 minutes after testing the poultry, we still need further checks before collecting all of the infected poultry to be culled in selected areas which will be determined later," deputy head of the animal health unit at the agency, Adnan Ahmad, said Wednesday.

He said it would take two to three days to verify if the birds and chickens were infected with bird flu.

Meanwhile in Bojong Gede district in Depok, most of chickens belonging to residents of Agriculture Ministry housing complex were found to be infected with bird flu.

One of the residents, Gatot, said his three chickens suddenly died Friday. He fed his chickens two hours before he found them dead with chests, heads and legs bluish.

"I immediately reported the deaths to the head of the neighborhood unit," he said as quoted by Tempointeraktif.

A team from the Depok Agriculture Agency came to the complex and inspected chickens and pet birds belonging to the residents Saturday.

From a rapid test of chicken's feces, several chickens and birds tested positive for bird flu.

"That day, we culled 50 chickens and three turtle doves," a resident Herman Talo said. (07)

PCViking said:

Chikungunya is one of the diseases which some believe to be an intentional misdiagnosis of Avian Influenza.



An important thing to nore about Chikungunya, is that Chikungunya is mosquito borne... not H2H http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/msds-ftss/msds172e.html

Click to expand...

Not sure who these "some" are but chikungunya is definitely NOT an intentional misdiagnosis of avian flu. The symptoms are nothing alike in fact. Chikungunya is a physically deforming disease that is not fatal, ercent reports of the possible first-ever death attributed to same notwithstanding.

Chikungunya has been around for a long time; just happens that it has grown tremendously this year in some areas and has begun to attract the attention of the msn.

RR

Niger

Deadly bird flu strain confirmed in second African country​

JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer

February 27, 2006 3:00 AM
PARIS (AP) - Niger has become the second African country with confirmed cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, a lab official said Monday.

Ilaria Capua, chief of the laboratory in Padua, Italy, said the tests were confirmed Monday and the government of the impoverished West African country had been informed.

The H5N1 strain had earlier been confirmed in Nigeria, Niger's southern neighbor, and officials had said in mid-February they were investigating whether it had surfaced in Niger.

Experts have been particularly concerned about the spread of H5N1 to Africa, which is unprepared for such a health crisis because of its weak infrastructure. The virus is believed to have spread unchecked in Nigeria before it was identified, and Nigeria's efforts to contain it have been hampered by a lack of resources and information.

Further tests were being carried out to determine how closely the strain found in Niger matched the H5N1 strain detected elsewhere in the world.

Capua, speaking at a bird flu conference in France, said she feared the arrival of the virus in a second African country was ''just the start'' of the virus becoming endemic on the continent.

She offered a glimmer of good news, though, saying tests on birds from Senegal had come back negative.

The lethal H5N1 bird flu strain has spread from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and scientists fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans, sparking a pandemic. The disease has killed more than 90 people, mostly in Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organization.

AP-WS-02-27-06 0559EST

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564689024602997707

WHO warns of flu spread to Australia​

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425826/665405

Once the deadly avian flu reaches Papua New Guinea it will quickly spread to its near neighbour Australia along migratory bird flyways, a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert has warned.

Disease specialist Dr Luo Dapeng is assisting PNG health, quarantine and agriculture authorities prepare a contingency plan for the arrival of the H5N1 strain of the virus.

This month more than a dozen countries reported their first outbreaks of the deadly strain which has killed more than 90 people worldwide and prompted mass cullings of poultry.

Luo believes it is inevitable avian flu will reach PNG if it is not already in the country and that it will quickly spread south to Australia with migratory birds crossing the Torres Strait.

"If something happens here, I think Australia cannot escape. I think Australia will have to help," Luo told AAP in Port Moresby.

"What Australia could do is help Papua New Guinea set up a good surveillance system and get a preliminary diagnosis system in place so they can take action quickly.

"That's the way to protect people both in Papua New Guinea and in Australia."

Queensland-based medicinal chemist Professor Mark von Itzstein warned this week that bird flu was highly likely to have reached northern Australia already with birds migrating from Indonesia.

Luo said that ensuring good preparedness in PNG for an outbreak was extremely important to delay the spread of the virus.

The same applied if the worst-case scenario happened and the virus evolved into a human-to-human form sparking a deadly pandemic, he said.

PNG authorities also needed to launch a public awareness campaign to ensure remote villagers understood the dangers of avian flu and the need to cull their chickens if there was an outbreak.

Villagers might be reluctant to cull an important protein source so authorities might have to pay compensation for culled birds.

The PNG government has set up a coordinating committee to develop a bird flu outbreak and human pandemic response strategy based on a WHO model.

Luo said migratory birds flying from Central Asia via Indonesia or from China via the Philippines were the most likely birds to carry the virus into PNG but fighting cocks smuggled by Asian workers into PNG's logging camps also posed a threat.

PNG's Western Province and the Sepik River region with their vast wetlands populated by migratory waterbirds and waders were the high risk areas, he said.

While backyard chickens were not as numerous in PNG as in Asian countries, the isolation of many villages posed a public health awareness problem.

"In this country, communications are not as good as in other Asian countries where they have television and see pictures every day and know how harmful this avian flu is for the people.

"We have to do health awareness campaigns in the remote villages so they can report if their poultry have died."

Another big problem was PNG's underfunded and overburdened health system, already struggling to cope with an HIV/AIDS crisis, Luo said.

PNG's quarantine inspection service currently tests chickens and ducks in Western Province for the virus but blood samples have to be sent to Australia for analysis.

Luo said preliminary diagnosis labs needed to be set up in PNG quickly to ensure a fast response to contain any outbreak by culling poultry in areas where infections occurred.

If a human pandemic occurred, PNG would need donor assistance to pay for Tamiflu drugs to protect people against the virus, he said.

Australian Deputy High Commissioner to PNG Ann Harrap said the PNG government had yet to ask the Australian government or other donors for funding to help prepare for the avian flu threat.

"Were they to do so we would obviously consider it in the context of other priorities and demonstrated performance in that area."

Source: AAP

H5N1 bird flu detected in southern Russia​

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/27/content_4235353.htm

MOSCOW, Feb. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected in domestic fowl in the southern Russian region of Stavropol, Interfax news agency reported on Monday.

Tests have confirmed the presence of the virus in dead domestic fowl in the city of Kislovodsk and the Izobilnoye district of the Stavropol territory, chief regional veterinarian inspector Viktor Parakhin said.

"The deaths are not numerous, yet we are assessing the situation in order to prevent the spread of the infection," he said.

Bird flu was found earlier on a poultry farm in another southern region, Dagestan.

Russia battled the virus for several months in some Siberian and western regions during an outbreak in July 2005 but declared itself free of bird flu at the end of the year. No humans were infected with the virus.

In its most highly pathogenic form, the H5N1 virus has devastated poultry populations worldwide and killed at least 92 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003. Enditem

Pakistan quarantines two farms in bird flu scare​

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP120535.htm

ISLAMABAD, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities placed two small farms under quarantine as a precaution against a suspected outbreak of bird flu after detecting a mild avian flu strain in flocks, the Livestock Commissioner said on Monday.

Dr. Muhammad Afzal said two farms in North West Frontier Province had been quarantined as a result of inspections of flocks throughout the country following an outbreak in neighbouring India earlier this month.

"We have extensively surveyed the country and we have detected two farms with low-pathogenic avian influenza," Afzal said.

He said the strain of virus had not been confirmed but initial tests pointed to a H5 subtype present at the two farms. Tests for the N-subtype have still to be carried out.

The H5N1 strain has killed at least 92 people since late 2003 and the virus has spread rapidly in the past month with cases in wild birds and poultry confirmed across parts of Europe, Africa as well as India and Malaysia.

The virus killed thousands of poultry in India but no human infections have been reported.

Afzal said there was no confirmation of any outbreak of the H5N1 virus but that samples were being sent to laboratories in Britain.

He said one of the quarantined farms was in Abbotabad, 125 km (80 miles) north of Islamabad, and the other was in Charsadda, 120 km (75 niles) northwest.

Low-pathogenic forms of bird flu cause mild symptoms such as ruffled feathers and a drop in egg production.

But it is believed that potentially deadly H5 and H7 strains of bird flu viruses start off in low-pathogenic forms when they are first introduced to poultry flocks and mutate to a highly pathogenic form within a few months if they are allowed to circulate.

Not all H5 varieties are highly pathogenic, but the H5N1 virus is particularly tenacious and poses the greatest risk to people. Scientists fear H5N1 might mutate into a form that passes easily between humans, triggering a pandemic.

I said it several months ago...the bird flu would be a big dud. It would not affect as many people as predicted. Now call me paranoid or crazy but with all our medical attention focus on the bird flu wouldn't it be divine justice if we got hit with something totally different? Technical all our resources are focused on fighting the bird flu right now ....in my experience with 'Murphy's' law ( I know its not his law but i couldn't remember the other guys name) it would be sickly comical if another type of virus struck us.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4753776.stm


France vaccinates poultry flocks

People have been banned from the Dombes wetlands of France

Nearly a million free range ducks and geese in France are set to be inoculated against bird flu.
The vaccination programme began on Monday in the Landes region, on the Atlantic coast of south-west France.

France earlier confirmed that 15 swans in the south-east had been found to be carrying the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Bosnia-Hercegovina is one of the latest countries to confirm the presence of H5N1 in wild swans.

Experts said tests carried out on the UK on two wild swans culled at a lake near the western town of Jajce did have the H5N1 virus.

Bosnia has now banned poultry imports from affected countries and ordered that birds be kept indoors.

The H5N1 virus, which causes bird flu, does not pose a large-scale threat to humans, as it cannot pass easily from one person to another.

Experts, however, fear the virus could mutate to gain this ability, and in its new form trigger a flu pandemic, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk.

Meanwhile, in Paris veterinary experts from more than 50 countries are meeting to discuss ways to combat the virus.

The two-day meeting is taking place at the World Organisation for Animal Health, which alongside the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation is co-ordinating the international veterinary response to H5N1.

Among the participants will be countries like Iran, Kuwait and Azerbaijan, which fear that they could soon be hit by the virus.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says they badly need to hear the latest thinking on detection, surveillance measures, slaughter and vaccination.

On the Atlantic coast the French authorities have authorisation from the European Union to vaccinate nearly a million birds they say cannot practically be moved indoors.

The geese and ducks - on nearly 150 farms - are destined for production of foie gras.

The operation, which only involves young birds, will take up to six weeks.

The Landes region has decided to carry out a vaccination programme because it is not considered practical to keep the birds indoors.

The 15 dead swans were found in the same Ain district where a turkey farm was on Saturday announced to be contaminated with bird flu.

About 400 of the 11,000 birds on the farm had died from the virus - the others were then slaughtered.

It was the first outbreak of bird flu in commercial poultry in the European Union.

The whole of the wetland area known as the Dombes has now been put off-limits in an attempt to keep people away from large flocks of wild birds.

Hong Kong has followed Japan in banning poultry imports from France.

In other countries, like Nigeria and India, ministers have urged people to continue eating poultry products as long as they are well-cooked, fearing the collapse of important poultry industries.

In Switzerland, the authorities are awaiting the results of tests on samples of what may be its first case of H5N1 bird flu.

A duck was found to be a carrier of the less specific H5 virus, but samples have been sent to the UK for definitive tests.

In Romania, preliminary tests indicated that a man suspected of having contracted bird flu does not have the disease, doctors said.

Bosnia says H5N1 bird flu found in two wild swans​

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...TRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-BOSNIA.xml&archived=False

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia's veterinary office said on Monday tests at the European Union reference laboratory had confirmed its first case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in two wild swans.

"Results from the reference laboratory in Weybridge (in England) were positive, H5N1 was isolated," veterinary office head Jozo Bagaric told a news conference.

The swans were culled 10 days ago at Malo Plivsko Jezero lake near the western town of Jajce. Tests at Bosnia's reference laboratory returned positive for H5 bird flu virus a week ago.

Veterinary authorities culled more than a dozen swans at the lake and almost 4,500 domestic poultry from nearby households. They had earlier banned hunting of wild fowl and ordered all poultry to be kept indoors.

Bosnia has also banned imports of poultry and poultry products from bird flu-hit countries.

"All preventive measures stay in force," Bagaric said.

The virus has killed more than 90 people in Asia and the Middle East since late 2003. It remains essentially an animal disease which humans contract only through close contact with infected birds.

Bosnia is situated in the Western Balkans on one of the routes migratory birds from central and northern Europe use. It borders Croatia, which last week reported its third case of H5N1 in four months.

Pakistan confirms bird flu strain on poultry farms​

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/103545.asp

Pakistani police sealed off two poultry farms and workers using poison gas started slaughtering 25,000 chickens after the mild H5-type bird flu was found in flocks.

Tests are underway to determine if the virus found in the chickens in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, Agriculture Ministry spokesman Mohammad Afzal said Monday.

"We have found H5-infected birds at two farms at Charsadda and Abbottabad districts in North West Frontier Province and requested the owners to cull all the birds," Afzal told AFP.

"We have not ruled out that it is H5N1 but it appears to be a low-pathogenic strain," he said.

Pakistan had sent samples from infected birds for testing at the EU Reference Laboratory for avian influenza in Weybridge, England, and results were expected "within a week or so", he said.

The supervisor of one of the affected farms said 2,000 egg-laying hens had died during the past week, although he insisted it was a normal rate.

"Police have been deployed outside the farm and farm workers are also not being allowed to go out," Alamgir Khan, of the Gul Poultry Farm at Charsadda, told AFP.

Both of the farms have been quarantined, said Rana Mohammed Akhlaq, livestock commissioner at the agriculture ministry. There was no ban yet on the movement of poultry, he added.

He said the poultry industry would decide whether to kill chickens in the infected area, although slaughter would be mandatory if the virus turns out to be H5N1.

"It will benefit the industry if they cull the infected birds and we hope they will do it voluntarily to contain the virus," Akhlaq said.

Pakistan Poultry Association chairman Raza Mahmood Khursand said workers had started killing birds at the farm in Abbottabad, which had around 15,000 birds. The other farm has around 10,000 chickens.

"We are sure the chickens are safe but our ultimate goal is the health of the nation," he said.

The poultry industry had started ordering bird flu vaccine from abroad and would launch a "full-blown" vaccination campaign as soon as it got the first consignment, he added.

Pakistan last week banned imports of poultry and live birds from neighbouring India and Iran, as well as France, after all three countries reported H5N1 cases.

The broad H5 virus category only kills birds, unlike the highly pathogenic H5N1 sub-type of the virus that has claimed about 90 human lives in Asia and Turkey.

In 2003 Pakistan destroyed 3.5 million birds after an outbreak of the less virulent H9 and H7 forms. The cull and a drop in prices cost the industry one billion rupees (16.6 million dollars). — AFP
Pakistani police sealed off two poultry farms and workers using poison gas started slaughtering 25,000 chickens after the mild H5-type bird flu was found in flocks.

Tests are underway to determine if the virus found in the chickens in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, Agriculture Ministry spokesman Mohammad Afzal said Monday.

"We have found H5-infected birds at two farms at Charsadda and Abbottabad districts in North West Frontier Province and requested the owners to cull all the birds," Afzal told AFP.

"We have not ruled out that it is H5N1 but it appears to be a low-pathogenic strain," he said.

Pakistan had sent samples from infected birds for testing at the EU Reference Laboratory for avian influenza in Weybridge, England, and results were expected "within a week or so", he said.

The supervisor of one of the affected farms said 2,000 egg-laying hens had died during the past week, although he insisted it was a normal rate.

"Police have been deployed outside the farm and farm workers are also not being allowed to go out," Alamgir Khan, of the Gul Poultry Farm at Charsadda, told AFP.

Both of the farms have been quarantined, said Rana Mohammed Akhlaq, livestock commissioner at the agriculture ministry. There was no ban yet on the movement of poultry, he added.

He said the poultry industry would decide whether to kill chickens in the infected area, although slaughter would be mandatory if the virus turns out to be H5N1.

"It will benefit the industry if they cull the infected birds and we hope they will do it voluntarily to contain the virus," Akhlaq said.

Pakistan Poultry Association chairman Raza Mahmood Khursand said workers had started killing birds at the farm in Abbottabad, which had around 15,000 birds. The other farm has around 10,000 chickens.

"We are sure the chickens are safe but our ultimate goal is the health of the nation," he said.

The poultry industry had started ordering bird flu vaccine from abroad and would launch a "full-blown" vaccination campaign as soon as it got the first consignment, he added.

Pakistan last week banned imports of poultry and live birds from neighbouring India and Iran, as well as France, after all three countries reported H5N1 cases.

The broad H5 virus category only kills birds, unlike the highly pathogenic H5N1 sub-type of the virus that has claimed about 90 human lives in Asia and Turkey.

In 2003 Pakistan destroyed 3.5 million birds after an outbreak of the less virulent H9 and H7 forms. The cull and a drop in prices cost the industry one billion rupees (16.6 million dollars). — AFP

Pakistani police sealed off two poultry farms and workers using poison gas started slaughtering 25,000 chickens after the mild H5-type bird flu was found in flocks.

Tests are underway to determine if the virus found in the chickens in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, Agriculture Ministry spokesman Mohammad Afzal said Monday.

"We have found H5-infected birds at two farms at Charsadda and Abbottabad districts in North West Frontier Province and requested the owners to cull all the birds," Afzal told AFP.

"We have not ruled out that it is H5N1 but it appears to be a low-pathogenic strain," he said.

Pakistan had sent samples from infected birds for testing at the EU Reference Laboratory for avian influenza in Weybridge, England, and results were expected "within a week or so", he said.

The supervisor of one of the affected farms said 2,000 egg-laying hens had died during the past week, although he insisted it was a normal rate.

"Police have been deployed outside the farm and farm workers are also not being allowed to go out," Alamgir Khan, of the Gul Poultry Farm at Charsadda, told AFP.

Both of the farms have been quarantined, said Rana Mohammed Akhlaq, livestock commissioner at the agriculture ministry. There was no ban yet on the movement of poultry, he added.

He said the poultry industry would decide whether to kill chickens in the infected area, although slaughter would be mandatory if the virus turns out to be H5N1.

"It will benefit the industry if they cull the infected birds and we hope they will do it voluntarily to contain the virus," Akhlaq said.

Pakistan Poultry Association chairman Raza Mahmood Khursand said workers had started killing birds at the farm in Abbottabad, which had around 15,000 birds. The other farm has around 10,000 chickens.

"We are sure the chickens are safe but our ultimate goal is the health of the nation," he said.

The poultry industry had started ordering bird flu vaccine from abroad and would launch a "full-blown" vaccination campaign as soon as it got the first consignment, he added.

Pakistan last week banned imports of poultry and live birds from neighbouring India and Iran, as well as France, after all three countries reported H5N1 cases.

The broad H5 virus category only kills birds, unlike the highly pathogenic H5N1 sub-type of the virus that has claimed about 90 human lives in Asia and Turkey.

In 2003 Pakistan destroyed 3.5 million birds after an outbreak of the less virulent H9 and H7 forms. The cull and a drop in prices cost the industry one billion rupees (16.6 million dollars). — AFP

<B><center>February 26. 2006 6:59AM

Rumors lead to run on bottled water
<font size=+1 color=red>Egyptians don't trust safety measures against bird flu.</font>

<A href="http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060226/News03/602260415/-1/NEWS03/CAT=News03">The Washington Post</a></center>
CAIRO -- Of all the panicky ways that people worldwide have tried to seek protection from bird flu, perhaps the strangest took root among Egyptians last week. Via e-mail messages and through mouth-to-ear advice dispensed on crowded city streets, word went out: Don't drink the water.</b>

Farmers -- and that includes rooftop poultry breeders that are a Cairo fixture -- had begun to dump stricken, dead chickens into the Nile River, the source of drinking water for millions of Egyptians, newspapers and satellite television reported. Suddenly, taps were turned off and consumers rushed to stores to purchase bottled water.

"I never saw anything like it," said Emad Abu Fouad, a grocer in the Bab al-Zuweila district. "People bought whole cases." No matter that the government assured everyone that purification chemicals in public water supplies would kill the H5N1 virus that infects birds and, scientists fear, could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted among humans.


Egypt is not the only country whose populace reacted with alarm during bird flu's recent thrust out of Asia and into Europe. In Western Europe, poultry sales plummeted as soon as the disease was found in migrating fowl. But in Egypt, there is a reservoir of mistrust of official information that leads to an especially irrational response. "There is little transparency in our society and whatever information is given is likely to be false. It will take a long time for people to believe the government," Magdi Mehanna, a journalist, wrote in the independent al-Masry al-Yom newspaper.

No humans have come down with the flu, Egyptian officials say, but as in other countries where the virus arrived in birds, the spread of H5N1 immediately depressed the chicken market. In Egypt, 750,000 people are employed in large scale poultry breeding. Layoffs are approaching 30 percent, industry officials say, as sales plummeted.

=




<B><center>Alarm as couple hit by bird flu

<font size=+0 color=green>Hong Kong's infectious disease alert will not be raised despite the latest warning from Beijing that the mainland has been placed on a "high alert" following the discovery of two new human cases and official talk of the possibility of a "massive" bird flu outbreak.</font>

Chester Yung and agencies
Monday, February 27, 2006
<A href="http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=4&art_id=12935&sid=6837709&con_type=1&d_str=20060227">www.thestandard.com.hk</a></center>
Hong Kong's infectious disease alert will not be raised despite the latest warning from Beijing that the mainland has been placed on a "high alert" following the discovery of two new human cases and official talk of the possibility of a "massive" bird flu outbreak.

"From the human side, the level of alert [in Hong Kong] remains the same," World Health Organization spokesman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said in a telephone interview from Beijing.</b>

"Unless we discover a cluster of human cases, which means a group of people who contracted the virus from the same source, the level of alert will remain the same," she said, adding that clusters "do not happen easily."

The Centre for Health Protection of the Hong Kong Department of Health said officers will maintain a close liaison with the mainland's Ministry of Health to obtain more information on the cases.

The CHP spokesman said that while people should increase their awareness and be careful with their personal hygiene, the Hong Kong alert remains at yellow.

The latest announcement from Beijing raises to 14 the number of human infections reported since October.

"In view of the current situation, the possibility of a massive bird flu outbreak could not be ruled out," Agriculture Ministry Du Qinglin said Saturday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

He called for agriculture authorities to step up disease monitoring and vaccination efforts.

Outbreaks in poultry occurred last year in 32 areas throughout China, killing 163,100 chickens, ducks and other fowl. The authorities destroyed a further 22.6 million birds to prevent the virus from spreading, Du said in a briefing for Chinese legislators.

The latest human cases are a nine- year-old girl and a 26-year-old woman, both of whom were in critical condition with fever and pneumonia, the Health Ministry reported.

The girl lives in the southeastern coastal province of Zhejiang and the woman is a farmer from Anhui province in the east, the Ministry said in a report carried by Xinhua.

China has reported eight deaths among its 14 human cases.

The farmer, identified only by the surname Wang, had contact with sick and dead poultry that laboratory tests showed had the H5N1 flu strain, the Health Ministry said. It said she got sick on February 11.

The cause of the girl's infection was under investigation, but she visited the home of relatives whose chickens died while she was there, the ministry said. She was admitted to hospital on February 10.

"The two patients have been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization," Xinhua said, citing the ministry.

It said people who had come into close contact with Wang or the girl, identified only by the surname You, had been put under medical observation but none had shown symptoms.

China's Health Ministry has informed the WHO and unspecified other countries as well as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan of the situation, Xinhua said. The H5N1 virus has devastated poultry stocks and killed at least 92 people since 2003, mostly in Asia. Fresh outbreaks have been reported in 14 countries since early February.

Outbreaks in mainland poultry have continued despite a mass inoculation effort that the government says has vaccinated all of the country's vast flocks of chickens, ducks and other birds.

China has about 5.2 billion poultry at any one time. In the latest case, Xinhua said Saturday that 13 chickens died on a farm in the village of Jitai in Anhui, prompting authorities to destroy more than 200 birds.

Health officials say the virus probably is being spread by migratory wild birds. They say more human cases are inevitable if China cannot prevent outbreaks among its poultry flocks.

Hong Kong health officials have outlawed backyard rearing of chickens and increased the surveillance of live poultry markets, prompting fierce criticism from the poultry industry.

About 100 backyard poultry owners staged a protest Sunday against the law banning backyard poultry farming.

Brandishing placards, they marched to Central Government Offices where they handed in a petition claiming the legislation breached their rights.

In a separate issue, the government has been urged to double the size of its free Tamiflu flu-shot program for all people aged 65 and over.

People's Health Actions said Sunday the program covers only a quarter of the elderly population - which is far below the level of many Western countries such as 65.5 percent in the United States and 70.9 percent in Australia. Group chairman Lo Wing-lok said additional cash needed to extend the program would be well spent.

=




<B><center>Americans Downplay Widespread Outbreak Of Avian Flu In Next Year

<font size=+1 color=blue>Surely science will save us? </font>

by Staff Writers
Boston MA (SPX) Feb 27, 2006
<A href="http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Americans_Downplay_Widespread_Outbreak_Of_Avian_Flu_In_Next_Year.html">www.terradaily.com</a></center>
The latest national poll conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Project on the Public and Biological Security finds that at the moment, the majority of the American public is concerned about the threat of avian flu, but only a small proportion is very concerned. However, should cases of avian flu emerge in poultry or humans in this country, the public reaction could lead to significant disruption of the economy and the health care system.
To see the figures related to this poll, visit here</b>

To see the topline, visit here

Concern about Avian Flu


More than half of Americans (57%) report that they are concerned about the potential spread of bird flu in the United States (Figure 1). However, only 15% are very concerned at the moment. A higher proportion of African Americans report that they are concerned about this than whites (70% versus 54%). Similarly, the majority of Americans are not currently concerned that they or a family member will get avian flu within the next twelve months; only one in five (21%) people are worried about this possibility (Figure 2).

Six in ten people are concerned about a pandemic outbreak of avian flu, that is, an outbreak in many countries (62%), but only 20% are very concerned. In addition, the American public does not believe avian flu will ultimately spread widely among wild birds (only 28% think so), poultry (24%), or humans in the United States (14%) in the next 12 months.

If the U.S. were to experience human cases of the avian flu virus currently circulating in Asia, there would be significant public reaction. If such cases were to occur in their state, most people said that they would reduce or avoid travel (75%), avoid public events (71%), try to get a prescription for Tamiflu or other antiviral drugs (68%), and stay at home and keep their children at home while the outbreak lasted (68%).

"If the public were to respond this way to human cases in their state, it would likely slow the spread of the disease, but it would also have major impact on the state's economy and health care system," said Robert J. Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at HSPH. "Because of this, it is important to prepare for a prompt and effective public health response."

As a result of growing reports of avian flu outbreaks in Asia and Europe, the survey asked Americans what they would do if avian flu were to spread to poultry in the U.S. The survey found that an outbreak of avian flu in poultry in the U.S. would have strong effects on the public's willingness to eat poultry. Nearly half (46%) of respondents who eat chicken or other poultry said that they would stop eating it if such cases were reported.

"Should there be cases of flu in chickens here, it could lead to a substantial reduction in the consumption of chicken, which would adversely affect the U.S. poultry industry," said Blendon. "Public education regarding the safety of cooked chicken could help prevent this problem."

Antiviral Treatments


Just under half of the American population has heard of Tamiflu or other antiviral drugs that can be used as possible treatments for avian flu (45%). Of this group, only one-quarter believe that these drugs are effective treatments once someone has gotten the symptoms of avian flu (25%). Despite media coverage of Tamiflu and other antiviral medications, only 2% of Americans have talked to their doctor about the use of Tamiflu or other antiviral drugs for the treatment of avian flu, and even fewer have gotten a prescription for the drug for this purpose (<.5%).

Possibly reflecting uncertainty about the seriousness of the threat posed by avian flu in the United States and the effectiveness of Tamiflu, two-thirds of the American population (66%) think that in the case of an outbreak in other countries, the United States should share some of its supply of antiviral drugs in order to keep the disease from spreading to the U.S.

Furthermore, respondents were asked whether, in the event of an outbreak of avian flu in humans in the U.S. in which there were a shortage of antiviral medication, they would be willing to let flu patients and first responders receive doses first. A significant majority of respondents said that they would be willing to wait to get an antiviral drug until after people such as those hospitalized with the flu (81%), doctors and nurses (80%), and police and firefighters (74%) had received the drug.

Quarantine


Most Americans are supportive of quarantine measures. Ninety-six percent of respondents said that they would agree to be quarantined for two to three weeks if they had avian flu. Over four out of five people said that they would also agree to be quarantined even if they might have the disease (83%). However, six in ten respondents who were employed admitted that they were "very" or "somewhat" concerned that, in the event of an outbreak in their state, they would not get paid if they had to be away from work (59%). In addition, four in ten employed respondents were "very" or "somewhat" concerned that their employer would make them go to work even if they were sick (39%).

Awareness of Avian Flu


Over half of Americans report following the news media's coverage of avian flu closely (54%). Most Americans were aware that there had been cases of avian flu in humans in Asia (69%). Furthermore, most people were aware that there had not been cases in the United States. However, one in seven people believed that human cases had occurred in the United States (15%). (Figure 6)

Additionally, most Americans know that a regular or seasonal vaccine will not prevent a person from getting avian flu (77%). Perhaps reflecting greater media attention in recent months to the possibility of an outbreak of avian flu, the amount of people who are worried that they or a family member may get sick from avian flu in the next twelve months has risen from 12% to 21% since 2003.

According to CDC reports, from December 2003 to February 13, 2006, there were 169 confirmed cases of H5N1 avian flu in humans and 91 deaths. They occurred in the following nations: Vietnam, 93 cases and 42 deaths; Thailand, 22 cases and 14 deaths; Indonesia, 25 cases and 18 deaths; China, 12 cases and 8 deaths; Cambodia, 4 cases and 4 deaths; Turkey, 12 cases and 4 deaths; and Iraq, 1 case and 1 death. To date, no cases have been reported in the U.S.

In addition, the following nations had confirmed H5N1 in poultry/birds since 2003: Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong (SARPRC), Italy, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. To date, there have been no cases reported in the U.S.

=



<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>Bosnia and Herzegovina Join H5N1-Hit Toll</font>

Politics: 27 February 2006, Monday.
<A href="http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=59809">www.novinite.com</a></center>
Bosnia and Herzegovina has become the latest in a string of countries that discovered the deadly-to-humans H5N1 bird flu strain on their territory.</b>

Two dead swans discovered in the center of the country tested positive for the virus that has thrown the whole world in panic. Fears of a pandemia continue to rise as more and more countries brake the grim news to their population and the world at large.

Bulgaria too hasn't been spared and swans found in three regions - at the seaside and near the Danube River - also proved carriers of the dreaded virus.

=



<B><center>Indonesian Minister:
<font size=+1 color=red>Bird Flu Situation Now "Emergency"</font>

by Zaki Almubarok, Ewo Raswa and Grace S Gandhi,
carried by Indonesian Koran Tempo website
on 27 February
<A href="http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/407141/indonesian_minister_bird_flu_situation_now_emergency/index.html?source=r_technology">www.redorbit.com</a></center>
Jakarta: Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono declared that Indonesia was experiencing a bird flu emergency. A swift response was needed to break the chain of infection. "The situation in Indonesia is concerning, no ordinary response will do," said Anton in a discussion on Radio Trijaya last Saturday (25 February).</b>

According to Anton, what could be done now was to compel the community to confine their birds. For example, domesticated chickens, previously allowed to roam free around the yard, must now be kept in cages.

The government, he said, was mid-way through preparing legislation that would, among other things, cover bird flu issues. The new regulations would address poultry distribution channels and stipulate measures to prevent the further spread of bird flu.

The new legislation, according to Anton, would be an amendment to Law No 6/1967, concerning Essential Stipulations for Animal Husbandry and Livestock Health.

However, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said that Indonesia was not in a state of emergency over bird flu. "This might be an emergency for the poultry but given that human to human transmission is yet to be proven, it is not yet an emergency for humans. So far, transmission has only occurred between poultry and humans," said Fadilah who was in Ternate when contacted by Tempo.

Fadilah said that bird flu had claimed 20 human victims so far, with the number of people infected reaching 28, according to test results in Indonesia and a Hong Kong laboratory.

She added that the government had not yet revoked the extraordinary event status declared nationally on 18 September 2005.

Similarly, Department of Health Spokesman Lily S. Sulistyowati said that the extraordinary event status remained in place for bird flu. Extraordinary event status meant that an event was exceptional and required serious attention.

Lily hoped that the bird flu pandemic would not worsen. However, she acknowledged that people who kept birds domestically were an obstacle in preventing the disease from spreading further. "We are not too worried about breeders because they usually have procedures in place for the disposal of poultry waste. But people who keep chickens in their homes have no such procedures," she said.

According to the Director of Animal Health at the Department of Agriculture, Samsul Bachri, 15 million birds across 26 provinces in Indonesia had died from bird flu since 2003.

Despite this, there had been no increase in the number of affected provinces. There had only been a change in the status of the provinces. Provinces such as Metropolitan Jakarta, Lampung, West Java, Central Java and East Java were among those hit hardest by bird flu and warranted a priority response. Meanwhile, cases of bird flu in other provinces had only been sporadic.

In fact, said Samsul, several provinces such as Benkulu, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi, had not reported any cases of bird flu.

=



<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>'Bird flu' hospital dash </font>

By JULIE MOULT
<A href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006090406,00.html">www.thesun.co.uk</a></center>
A ROMANIAN was rushed to hospital yesterday suffering from suspected bird flu.
He is the 11th suspected victim of human bird flu in Romania, although none of the cases have been confirmed so far.

The 21-year-old was taken ill in the village of Cetate — which is about 300 miles west of the Danube delta where the H5N1 virus was discovered in October. </b>

Bird flu has now been detected in 34 villages across Romania and a new case in poultry was being investigated yesterday.

Fifteen wild swans were also found dead of H5N1 in France, near the site where turkeys were culled at a farm contaminated by the virus.

A protection zone in the Ain region in the south east of the country was extended to 160 towns and hamlets.

Experts warned the disease could wipe out the famous pink flamingos of the Camargue marshlands.

A dead duck found in Geneva is also suspected of having bird flu.

Tests are being carried out to see if it had the deadly H5N1 strain — but if it proves positive it would be the first case in Switzerland.

=


<B><center>India

<font size=+1 color=purple>Around 90,000 people checked for symptoms of bird flu in India</font>

Published: 2/26/2006
<A href="http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=109915">www.turkishpress.com</a></center>
NEW DELHI - Indian officials battling a bird flu outbreak culled hundreds of thousands of chickens and checked around 90,000 people for symptoms in Gujarat state as authorities ordered tests on dead birds at the other end of the country.

"More than 88,900 persons have been surveyed by the team. Of these 10 human cases have been kept under observation in isolation wards at the referral hospital," said an official in the western state of Gujarat who declined to be named. </b>

Another official, Vatsala Vasudev, said officials were going house to house and checking on people. "Anyone with symptoms is being referred to the government hospital in Surat where a special isolation ward has been created," said Vasudev, Surat district's top civil administrator.

But 95 people suspected of infection tested negative over the weekend, easing fears the disease might have spread to humans in the country of more than one billion people where many live in close proximity with poultry.

However the government of the northeastern state of Assam sounded a health alert after some 1,000 chickens died over the weekend, ordering tests on the dead birds.

"All preventive measures are being adopted in view of the bird flu scare prevailing across the country," the magistrate of Tinsukia district, Sanjay Kumar Lohia, told AFP.

Last week India reported its first cases at Navapur in Maharashtra state south of Gujarat.

Over the weekend new cases were reported from the neighbouring Uchchal area of Surat district in Gujarat, prompting officials to slaughter tens of thousands of chickens.

"So far about 90,000 birds have been killed in Uchchal area from where the new cases were reported," Vasudev told AFP.

Officials said Sunday about 280,000 more birds have been killed around Navapur.

Vasudev and other officials said the new cases of avian flu that came to light Saturday were not part of a second outbreak.

"The samples from Uchchal that tested positive were taken on the same day as the ones from Navapur," P.M.A. Hakeem, a secretary in the federal agriculture ministry, told AFP.

"Uchchal is about three kilometres (1.9 miles) from Navapur, from where the H5N1 outbreak was first reported. So that area was already covered under the culling plan" radius of 10 kilometres, Hakeem said.

Doctors were on alert for symptoms among the 60,000 residents of Navapur and villages within 10 kilometres. A total of 108 people had signs of fever, according to Maharashtra figures released Friday.

But officials said they believed none was infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu that has so far killed more than 90 people worldwide.

The buying and selling of poultry in villages within a 10 kilometre radius of Uchchal has been banned.

"Our village has no birds, every one of them were killed," said Karsa Baria of Sakardha village, a few kilometres from Navapur.

"Still we fear being afflicted by the disease, but where to flee? We have left everything to God."

Chicken prices have plunged to 30 rupees (62 cents) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) from 75 rupees earlier as many hotels and restaurants dropped the meat from their menus, even as officials sought to reassure people that poultry products from outside the affected area are safe.

"There is nothing to fear. People should have faith in our work," Maharashtra's animal husbandry commissioner, Bijay Kumar, was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.

India's parliament, Indian Railways which carries 11 million passengers a day, the country's 1.1-million-strong military and even zoo authorities in Delhi have stopped serving poultry and eggs.

European airlines make contingency plans for bird flu ​

Published in Airline Industry Information on Monday, 27 February 2006 at 15:24 GMT
Copyright (C) 2006, M2 Communications Ltd.

The contingency plans drawn up for the SARS epidemic in Asia two years ago are being used by European airlines as a model for bird flu plans.

The airlines have reportedly drawn up contingency plans that include grounding thousands of flights as well as installing disease protection supplies on board aircraft. Airlines have said that so far there have been no changes in travel patterns due to the positive tests for the H5N1 strain in poultry in Europe, Reuters reported.

Some airlines have reportedly installed masks, goggles and gloves on board aircraft and have also trained crews in how to respond to an epidemic.

http://www.m2.com/m2/web/story.php/2006C13519B823E67BA58025712200534ED8

Pakistan

Pak confirms flu, to cull 25,000 birds​

The Asianage (2/27/2006 9:28:19 PM)

Islamabad, Feb. 27: Pakistan has detected H5-type bird flu in chickens on two poultry farms and tests are underway to determine if the virus is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, officials said.

The workers used poisonous gas to start slaughtering around 25,000 birds on the farms in North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, government and industry officials said.

"We have found H5-infected birds at two farms at Charsadda and Abbottabad districts in North West Frontier Province and requested the owners to cull all the birds," Agriculture ministry spokesman Mohammed Afzal said. "We have not ruled out that it is H5N1 but it appears to be a low pathogenic strain," he said. Pakistan had sent samples from infected birds for testing at the EU Reference Laboratory for avian influenza in Weybridge, England, and results were expected "within a week or so," he said.

The affected farms have also been quarantined, said Rana Mohammed Akhlaq, livestock commissioner at the same ministry. There was no ban yet on the movement of poultry, he added.

He said the poultry industry would decide whether to kill chickens in the infected area, although slaughter would be mandatory if the virus turns out to be H5N1.

"It will benefit the industry if they cull the infected birds and we hope they will do it voluntarily to contain the virus," Mr Akhlaq said. Pakistan Poultry Association chairman Raza Mahmood Khursand said workers had started killing birds at the farm in Abbottabad.

http://www.asianage.com/main.asp?layout=2&cat1=3&cat2=34&newsid=210973&RF=DefaultMain

Finland

Bird Deaths Examined in Southern Finland ​

Published 27.02.2006, 17.32 (updated 27.02.2006, 17.40)

The National Veterinary and Food Research Institute of Finland (EELA) is currently examining the largest mass death striking birds in Finland so far this year. A total of 21 ducks and one crow were recently found dead at Kotka's Sapokka park in southern Finland.

EELA says a preliminary report on the examination will be ready on Tuesday. A variety of illnesses could have been responsible for the deaths, including salmonella poisoning. The ducks have wintered in Kotka, lessening the likelihood that bird flu caused the deaths.

According to Kotka’s city veterinarian, the situation is being treated seriously. A ban on entering the Sapokka park, however, has not been implemented.

EELA has examined a dozen birds this year but the Kotka case is the first involving the deaths of several birds.

Bird flu has not yet been detected in Finland, but some fear the virus could reach Finland via migratory birds.

Kymenlaakson radio

http://www.yle.fi/news/left/id28890.html

"The three North American polymorphisms found in the 2004 H5N7 isolates from Delaware suggest the H5N1 has already migrated to North America." Quote taken from article below:



http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02260602/H5N1_Astrakhan_American.html

Commentary
.
Astrakhan Mute Swan H5N1 Acquisition of American Sequences

Recombinomics Commentary
February 26, 2006

The availability of all eight genes from six isolates from Astrakhan allows for analysis of newly acquired polymorphisms. The consensus sequence of the Astrakhan isolates have 8 major polymorphisms which are in 5 or 6 isolates and not in other Qinghai H5N1 sequences.

Two of these polymorphisms have been found in human H1N1 sequences. The polymorphism described below is similar to the two PB2 polymorphisms that are found in isolates from North America. The PB1 polymorphism is also found in recent North American isolates. The two H5N7 isolates from Alberta also have the two polymorphisms in PB2, making it a likely source. These data suggest that the polymorphism were acquired via recombination from the same North American host.

The polymorphism is C1539T and was screened using a 25 BP probe. All of the isolates below have an exact match in their PB1 gene and this polymorphism has an unusual history. It was first reported in the 1957 H2N2 pandemic strain. In 1968 it was then found in the H3N2 pandemic strain. It remained in human isolates until 1976 when it was detected in H3 bird isolates. It has been in a wide variety of bird sero-types, but almost all isolates were from North America, including the swine isolates.

Now the polymorphism is in 5 of the 6 Astrakhan H5N1 isolates. These same isolates have picked up a number of current human polymorphism including two from H1N1 and two from H3N2 isolates.

The acquisition of human isolates are cause for concern.

The three North American polymorphisms found in the 2004 H5N7 isolates from Delaware suggest the H5N1 has already migrated t North America.

(follow link for more)

=




<B><center>February 27, 2006
by the International Herald Tribune

<font size=+1 color=purple>Unless We Act Now, Bird Flu May Win </font>

by Laurie Garrett
<A href="http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0227-28.htm">www.commondreams.com</a></center>
New York -- Despite the commitment of billions of dollars to the fight against pandemic influenza, the world may lose the battle against avian flu, for lack of an effective strategy. Much of the money - nearly $4 billion from U.S. taxpayers, alone - is being spent inappropriately. For far less money, strategically deployed in a global campaign, the world could be a safer place for the coexistence of man and microbe.

<font size=+0 color=red>H5N1 avian flu has reached Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, all the Black Sea nations and now Austria, Denmark, Bulgaria, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Switzerland, India, Egypt, France and Germany. There is a sense of panic in the air, as Asians, Europeans and Africans alike imagine a catastrophic human pandemic.</b></font>

It could happen, but humanity ought not simply consider the event inevitable and frantically stockpile Tamiflu and other drugs of dubious efficacy. A definitive report in the Jan. 28 issue of the medical journal The Lancet concludes, "We could find no credible data on the effects of [Tamiflu] on avian influenza." The Italian and Australian authors of the report warn that, "Over-reliance on a pharmacological solution to the ravages of influenza may impede the development and implementation of broader intervention strategies based on public-health measures."

<b>It is urgent that public health leaders and policy makers step back from the breech and consider how this bird pandemic is spreading, and what can be done about it.</b> We know enough about influenza to develop and execute a rational strategy. It will require some significant feats of diplomacy and foreign policy, but it is achievable.

First, let's stop pretending nature is mysterious, and concentrate on what we know. <b>H5N1, though deadlier and potentially far more devastating than any other influenza seen in nearly a century, has followed a fairly clear set of biological, predictable principles since <u>it first surfaced in Hong Kong in 1997</u>.</b>

Thanks to the brilliant work of scientists like Robert Webster, Malik Peiris, Kennedy Shortridge and K.Y. Yuen, <b>we now understand that influenza is naturally an aquatic migratory bird virus that is carried by ducks, geese and a small list of other waterfowl. Influenza infection is usually harmless to these world travelers, but can kill other types of birds, such as chickens, domestic ducks and swans.</b>

The vulnerable birds contract their infections when the migrating species land on farms or ponds, and pass influenza fecally. <font size=+0 color=red>We now know that the H5N1 virus is particularly robust, and can survive suspended in fecal material for more than a month, making it possible that a flock of dead chickens spotted today may actually have become infected as a result of pecking its way through feces deposited weeks ago by a passing goose.</font>

So far the only tactics being deployed once H5N1 turns up in domestic animals are slaughter, culling millions of animals that are suspected of being infected, or mass vaccination. If peasant farmers cannot afford to keep domestic animals indoors, away from wild birds' contaminating viruses, an alternative is to keep the migrating birds away from the farms.

<font size=+0 color=red>For at least a decade H5N1 has circulated among a small pool of migrating birds, mostly inside China, and occasionally broken out in other animals and people.</font> <b>Last May, however, more than 6,000 avian carcasses piled up along the shores of Lake Qinghai, in central China, one of the world's most important bird breeding sites. Most of the dead included species that hadn't previously evidenced influenza infection.</b>

<font size=+0 color=red>The Lake Qinghai moment was the tipping point in the bird flu pandemic. The virus mutated, evidently becoming more contagious and deadly to a broader range of bird species, some of which continued their northern migration to central Siberia.</font> <b>By June, Russia's tundra was, for the first time, teeming with H5N1-infected birds, intermingling with southern European species that became infected before flying home, via the Black Sea.</b>

<u>Not surprisingly, by October countries from Ukraine to Greece were rumored to have H5N1</u>, but only the Romanian government responded with swift transparency, culling tens of thousands of chickens and ducks. Most of the governments in the region did not confirm their H5N1 contaminations until <font size=+0 color=red>Turkey, after at least three months of denial, was forced on Jan. 6 to admit that the virus had infected birds in a third of the country's provinces, and had <b>caused several human infections and deaths.</font></b>

<font size=+0 color=purple>Since then, we have learned of confirmed bird and/or human H5N1 cases in Iraq, Azerbaijan, Iran, Greece, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, France, Germany, Denmark, Bulgaria and, most disturbingly, Nigeria, Egypt and India.</font>

Not a single one of these countries' outbreaks ought to have been surprises. Each of them is located along either the Black Sea/Mediterranean migratory bird flyway, which starts in Siberia and, at its southernmost point, ends in Nigeria and Cameroon, or the European flyway, which overlaps the former, and stretches from northernmost Siberia to Nigeria.

Anybody tracking the birds could have seen it coming. Several countries along the flyway between Saudi Arabia (which has confirmed H5N1 infections in falcons) and Nigeria have not reported H5N1 cases, but much of the region is North Africa's sparsely populated Sahara Desert. Egypt reported widespread bird infection last week, and it is likely that infected birds have landed along the few waterways in the area, such as the Nile, Lake Chad and the Red Sea.

<b>We should not be astonished to learn of H5N1 outbreaks in birds or people in the next few weeks in nations located along the East Africa flyway, which overlaps with the already contaminated Black Sea/Mediterranean one: Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Gabon, Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and the rest of the eastern African countries.</b>

Because H5N1 has been confirmed in Nigeria, Egypt, Germany and Spain, which straddle the intersections of the Black Sea/Mediterranean and the East Atlantic flyways, <b>over the next six weeks we should not be surprised to hear of H5N1 bird and even human cases in several northern European nations, including Britain and Iceland.</b>

<B><font size=+0 color=red>By June or July,</font></b> if the biological imperatives continue to follow their course, <b>H5N1 should turn up in eastern Siberia, and then Alaska, via the East Asia flyway. It might also at that time jump from Iceland, via Greenland, to northern Canada. Once in the Arctic zones of the Americas, H5N1 will be able to follow any, or all, of the four primary north/south flyways that span the Americas, from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego. It is in the realm of reasonable probability that H5N1 will reach the United States this summer or early autumn.</b>

Instead of simply sitting back and watching nature take its course, <b>the global community should be proactive.</b> Being ahead of the virus is akin to being ahead of the migrating birds. <b>Instead of waiting for dead birds, and even dying people, to turn up in new areas</b>, political leaders should heed the warnings from science and act accordingly - as, apparently, Sweden and the Netherlands are doing.

The Swedes and Dutch looked at their maps, plotted the movements of infected birds, and last week ordered farmers to bring their flocks indoors, out of harm's way. In poorer regions of the world, where indoor facilities for animals may be unaffordable, simple nets and fences can radically decrease contact between wild and domestic birds, and mass public education campaigns warning people to avoid contact with sick birds or carcasses may decrease the likelihood of avian-to-human transmission of H5N1.

One of the best untapped resources in this epic battle against influenza is bird-watchers, who are among the most fanatic hobbyists in the world. The major bird-watching organizations and safari clubs ought to work with the World Health Organization and OIE, the World Organization for Animal Health, to set up Web-based notification sites, where birders could report sightings of groups of dead birds, and the movements of key migrating species.

Ornithologists and climate experts should immediately sit down with pandemic planners and virologists, creating lists of known H5N1 carriers and plotting their most likely global movements. As the birds appear in new regions of the world, birders and professional wildlife surveillance personnel should issue alerts, which should be swiftly confirmed and form the basis of government response.

When carrier species are sighted in a region, swift action should be taken to minimize contact between the wild birds and their domestic kin. In such a way, it might be possible to limit avian deaths to susceptible wild birds, such as the dying swans of Europe.

While the H5N1 virus remains an avian killer, wealthy nations and biomedical companies should work hard on developing a rapid, simple method of diagnosing flu infections in people. Currently, many of the delays in reporting human cases around the world are due to the tedious laboratory procedures necessary to diagnose H5N1 infection. We urgently need a quick infection test that can be performed by nonprofessionals.

<font size=+0 color=red>Rather than waiting for a tide of H5N1 to wash over the world's birds, mutate, and then move in a tidal wave over humanity, we should create lines of defense that start with the wild animals, move next to protect poultry, and then rely on rapid screening of human beings to determine who is, and is not, infected with the virus.</font>

In the absence of these sound footings, everything else is just wasted billions of dollars.

Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Coming Plague."
© 2006 International Herald Tribune

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/i...e.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Bird Flu Raises Concerns in France and Nigeria

By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Published: February 26, 2006

PARIS, Feb. 25 — The announcement on Saturday that the deadly strain of bird flu was discovered in domesticated turkeys in France has disrupted the country's $7 billion poultry market and raised fears among the French that they could be vulnerable to the disease.

President Jacques Chirac, a former agriculture minister, met with farmers and veterinarians on Saturday morning at the opening of France's annual international agricultural fair and urged calm.

There is no "absolutely no danger in eating poultry and eggs," Mr. Chirac said, eating a chicken dish to press the point. He said that the industry had been "profoundly hurt and disrupted," and that "a completely unjustified sort of total panic" was developing.

For the first time in the fair's 42 years, no live birds are on display.

Detection of the A(H5N1) flu strain on a turkey farm in eastern France represented the first time the virus had been found in farm animals in the 25 countries of the European Union.

France had already been reeling from the news that a wild duck, found dead nearly two weeks ago in the department of Ain, the same area where the turkey farm is situated, had been infected.

Those fears, followed by the confirmation on Saturday that a farm with a flock of 11,000 turkeys had been struck by the disease, have sent poultry sales plummeting.

Although the official estimate of market loss is 30 percent, some officials at the Rungis wholesale market in Paris reported a drop of close to 50 percent in the past two days.

The detection of the avian flu virus threatens not only to transform the eating habits of the country, but also to damage the export market for the poultry products of France, the largest producer in Europe and the fourth largest market in the world.

Japan announced Friday that it had temporarily banned the import of all poultry products from France — even foie gras packaged before the virus struck. Japan is the fourth-largest importer of foie gras.

Japan's agriculture minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, met Mr. Chirac briefly at the fair on Saturday, and told reporters afterward, "I am sure that French producers are responding correctly to our wishes and that this incident will not affect the relationship between France and Japan."

The French government has taken aggressive preventive measures throughout the poultry industry, ordering birds confined to pens and quarantining the area where the original infected duck, and later a second duck, were found. But the turkey farm is within that protection zone, the French agriculture minister, Dominique Bussereau, said Friday.

There is a plan to vaccinate many of the country's birds. The vaccine can prevent the flu in most cases, but it can also mask the symptoms of the virus in some infected birds, turning them into silent carriers, leading some countries to ban the import of birds from nations that vaccinate.

Also on Friday, authorities in Lyon simulated the arrival of two potentially infected passengers on a plane from an unidentified Southeast Asian country.

Meanwhile, Daniel Clair, the owner of the turkey farm where the flu was confirmed, told the newspaper Le Parisien that he thought the virus was carried on bales of straw that he had put into his indoor pens after his turkeys had been treated for diarrhea.

A local veterinarian, Claude Lessus, who told Le Figaro that he had prescribed antibiotics for the turkeys, said Mr. Clair collected seven big bales of straw with his tractor, adding, "This could be the means by which the animals became infected."

On Wednesday night, his turkeys were fine, he said. But on Thursday morning, he found 400 dead birds in his flock, and others that were sick. It was, he said, "a thing so thunderous, I immediately understood."

Mr. Clair's remaining turkeys were slaughtered, even before the final determination was announced after 1 a.m. Saturday.

Mr. Clair, his wife and their 8-year-old son are being treated with Tamiflu, an antiviral drug, and have been quarantined in their home. He said he had been told to notify the authorities if they became ill. An 11-year-old daughter, who was not at home when authorities intervened, has not been allowed to return.

A security zone of two miles and a surveillance zone of five miles has been created around the farm, French officials said. The police are disinfecting the farm — where other animals are also raised — as well as the wheels of vehicles that had traveled near the area.

Mr. Clair said that he wanted all necessary precautions to be taken, but he confessed he felt a bit like a pariah. The policeman delivering the flu medicine refused to come up to his house, but left the drug on the road, he said; his mail is not being delivered.

"I have begun to worry," Mr. Clair said. "We have started to run out of food."

Bird flu has hit six other European Union countries: Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia. On Friday, European health ministers met in Vienna, where they ate poultry products and discussed strategies.

On Friday, Mr. Chirac served Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski, suprême de volaille, a creamed chicken dish, at Élysée Palace.

The disease is highly contagious among poultry and can spread quickly through an entire flock. It can be contracted by people who come into contact with infected birds during slaughtering, plucking feathers, butchering or preparation for cooking, but it is not transmitted through eating thoroughly cooked poultry.

The infection could devastate France's upscale free-range poultry industry.

The area of Bresse, for example, which is close to the area of the turkey farm, is the only region of France whose poultry receives the coveted designation "AOC" ("Appelation d'Origine Contrôlée").

New Human Cases in Asia

SHANGHAI, Feb. 25 (Reuters) — China reported two new human cases of bird flu on Saturday, the New China News Agency said. In Indonesia, tests confirmed that a 27-year-old woman who died Monday was the country's 20th bird-flu fatality.

The Chinese cases involve a 9-year-old girl in eastern Zhejiang Province who had visited relatives who kept poultry and a woman who farmed in neighboring Anhui Province. Both are in critical condition, the agency reported.

The victim in Indonesia was said to be a housewife who had direct contact with her neighbor's chickens.

WHO: Human Bird Flu Cases Rise​

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/health/main1349539.shtml

(CBS/AP) The U.N. health agency on Monday raised its tally of officially confirmed human cases of bird flu by three to 173. It said 93 of those were fatal, raising the number by one.

The new cases on the World Health Organization's list are two people in China reported in critical condition and a 27-year-old woman from Indonesia's West Java province who died last week.

WHO figures usually lag behind reports in individual countries, because it considers a person to have bird flu only after samples have been sent abroad and confirmed as H5N1 positive in a foreign laboratory.

Almost all human deaths from bird flu have been linked to contact with infected birds.

In Indonesia, investigations carried out by local authorities "found reports of chicken deaths in the woman's neighborhood four days prior to her onset of symptoms," WHO said in a statement.

In China, however, one of the patients came from the eastern province of Zhejiang, where there have been no reported animal outbreaks since 2004, the agency said.

In other recent developments:


A 21-year-old man who was suspected of suffering from bird flu has tested negative for the human form of the disease, doctors said Monday.

The man, who lives in the southwest village of Cetate where the deadly H5N1 virus was detected in birds, was brought by ambulance Sunday to the Bals Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Bucharest after showing flu symptoms.


Russia's president on Monday ordered the Cabinet to set up a bird flu task force as the disease continued to spread in the country. A southern Russian village was put under quarantine after 10 chickens died on a private farm and veterinarians gave a preliminary diagnosis of the H5 strain of bird flu, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Monday.


Some 90,000 people examined in an area of western India hit by the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus have shown no sign of the disease, although several people remained under observation, the government said Monday.

Health workers have been going door-to-door to screen people in dozens of villages in Maharashtra and Gujarat states where India's first outbreaks of bird flu were reported last week.


The European Union's first outbreak of lethal H5N1 bird flu in commercial poultry was confirmed Saturday in France, the EU's largest poultry producer. France's farming ministry said lab tests confirmed H5N1 in turkeys at a farm in the southeast Ain region, where thousands of the birds were found dead Thursday.

But in China, it is believed the 9-year-old girl developed symptoms after a visit to relatives in the neighboring Chinese province of Anhui, where a 26-year-old female farmer also developed symptoms "following contact with diseased poultry."

The health body has now confirmed 14 human cases of bird flu, eight deadly, in China since last year. There are 27 laboratory-confirmed cases and 20 deaths in Indonesia.

WHO also said it was working with Chinese authorities to increase public awareness of the disease, and encourage people to report outbreaks and avoid contact with dead birds because "the H5N1 virus is now considered to be endemic in birds in large parts of China."

http://www.kimatv.com/x3443.xml?Par...&Layout=KIMA.xsl&AdGroupID=x3443&NewsSection=

February 26, 2006

Local Politicians says Avian Flu is On Our Doorstep

By Tammy Mori

Yakima -

Local politicians say the deadly virus is already on our doorstep.

So The Senate just approved 7-million dollars in federal money for preparedness efforts.

And The state Department of Health has already upgraded one of its labs to test humans for the avian flu.

Birds in our state are being tested as well.



More Detailed article:

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_022506HEKbirdfluEL.61986603.html

Washington prepares for the worst as avian flu continues to spread

01:22 PM PST on Saturday, February 25, 2006

Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. - As more than a dozen countries grapple with newly reported cases of bird flu, officials in Washington state are working on a plan in case the deadly strain of virus makes it here.

KTVB

The state Department of Health, which already has a general pandemic flu plan in place, has upgraded one of its labs to test humans for avian flu.

A bill that passed the Senate and awaits action in the House would require local health departments to develop preparedness and response plans for a pandemic flu outbreak. And Gov. Chris Gregoire is hosting a pandemic flu summit in Tacoma on April 14.

"Avian flu is on our doorstep," said Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, the sponsor of the pandemic preparedness bill. "It is very active, it is very strong, and it is moving very fast."

The Senate last week approved a budget that would earmark $7 million in federal money for pandemic flu preparedness. On Tuesday, the House unveiled its budget proposal, upping the ante with $100,000 in state money for the state Department of Agriculture to conduct additional monitoring.

And on Friday, Rep. Shay Schual-Berke secured another $2 million for the Department of Health's preparedness efforts. She had hoped to get at least $5 million for the agency, and told colleagues they were gambling that 32 cents per Washington resident would be adequate. "Good luck," she said.

"We have to take care of ourselves, said Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park. "We can't rely on the federal government."

The H5N1 virus has devastated poultry stocks and killed at least 92 people since 2003, mostly in Asia. Fresh outbreaks have been reported in birds in 14 countries this month.

The most recent case found was in Hungary, where test results confirmed Tuesday that three dead swans found there were infected with the deadly strain of bird flu. No cases of the virus have been found in North America.

Since January 2004, seven countries have reported human cases of the bird flu. Most have been linked to contact with infected birds. But scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form easily transmitted between humans, sparking a pandemic.

An influenza pandemic -- avian or other -- could kill thousands of people, overwhelm hospitals and emergency responders and disrupt businesses and public services.

"When pandemic hits, it will hit the economy hard, it will hit the health care systems and stress them very quickly, and it will be absolutely essential to maintain the social order of communities and keep them going," said Mary Selecky, the state's secretary of health.

Tim Church, a spokesman for the Health Department, said there's already a regular effort to monitor influenza in the state.

Nursing homes and schools file regular reports on the seasonal flu along with anything that may seem like it's something else. A lab in Shoreline now has the ability to take swabs from people to test for avian flu.

The state Department of Agriculture and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife have added avian flu tests to all work already being done on birds.

"When we handle birds of any kind, we're adding that test," said Madonna Luers, a spokeswoman for Fish and Wildlife.

The state agency works closely with counterparts in Alaska, British Columbia and California -- which lie along the migration route for ducks and geese.

Luers noted that wild birds can carry numerous influenza viruses, and most don't affect them.

Under Keiser's bill, by Jan. 1, 2007, each local health jurisdiction must develop a pandemic flu and preparedness plan that would include public education, disease surveillance programs and mass vaccination plans.

California, Illinois, Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Virginia also have introduced measures dealing with avian flu, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

President Bush's budget seeks $2.6 billion to prepare for a possible worldwide outbreak of bird flu or some other super-strain of influenza. Most of the money represents the second installment of the $7.1 billion strategy Bush announced last fall to prepare for the next flu pandemic. Congress has already approved spending $3.8 billion this year on such steps as stockpiling medications and vaccines to treat bird flu.

Selecky said that the state expects to receive an initial $1.9 million by August.

Senate Budget Chairwoman Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, said that the federal money can cover most of the education and preparation that needs to be done in the near future, and that the Legislature can reevaluate if things change.

"We all feel that when and if something happens, we're ready to step in," she said.

But Schual-Berke said the state can't wait.

"If pan flu comes in a year or three, that level of communication, integration of systems, building of capacity, will serve us well," Schual-Berke said. And if the bird flu never strikes, "if we have an earthquake, if we have a tsunami, this strengthens our ability to protect the citizens."

Another measure to improve the state's emergency readiness by creating a special fund has also passed the Senate and awaits action in the House. It allocates 20 percent of the money for emergency management plans for disasters like earthquakes and avian flu to the state and 80 percent to local and regional governments.

The Senate allotted $5.3 million for the measure in its budget, but the House budget didn't provide any money for it. A deal on the budget, and the amount of money given to any measure, must be hashed out before lawmakers adjourn on March 9.