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I was afraid that I would be reading this article one day.Considering the migratory patterns of our lovely geese and the vast expanses of their travels, Im afraid that this article falls short of envisioning the true impact of these findings.
Stem Bird Flu on Island
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Canada widened quarantine measures to contain bird flu on Prince Edward Island, where an infected gosling was found on a farm last week.
Tests are under way to check if the virus is the H5N1 strain that has killed more than 140 million poultry and at least 129 people, mainly in Asia. A neighboring property was quarantined to prevent a spread of the virus, identified as an H5 subtype of avian influenza, Marc Richard, a spokesman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said yesterday.
``The neighbor also has chickens, and since it's a contagious disease, we've gone in, ordered them not to move, have taken samples from the chickens and sent those off to the lab to be analyzed,'' Richard said in a phone interview from Ottawa. ``There is zero indication of disease'' on the second farm.
Animal health officials worldwide are monitoring for H5N1, described by some scientists as the most lethal avian flu strain yet recorded, which has spread to almost 40 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa this year. Diseased fowl increase the risk for humans and create more opportunity for the virus to mutate into a pandemic form capable of killing millions of people.
The H5N1 virus has infected at least 227 people in 10 countries since late 2003, the Geneva-based World Health Organization said on June 16.
Almost all human cases have been linked to close contact with sick or dead birds, such as children playing with them or adults butchering them or plucking feathers, according to the WHO. Thorough cooking of meat and eggs kills the virus.
Hungarian Cull
Hungarian officials slaughtered 3,000 more domestic poultry over the weekend on concern they were exposed to the virus, the Magyar Nemzet newspaper reported today, citing Miklos Suth, Hungary's chief veterinarian.
A farmer in the southern town of Szank raised the alarm after noticing one of his geese behaved strangely, according to the report. Veterinary officials culled all 700 birds at the farm and 2,300 others in a one-kilometer (0.62 mile) radius, the newspaper said.
In Indonesia, which reported its 50th human case last week, authorities must cull more poultry to arrest bird flu. The disease has spread across two-thirds of the country's provinces and killed more than one person a week this year.
``We have to do more preemptive culling, there's no alternative,'' said Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, vice chairwoman of a government-appointed committee on avian and pandemic influenza. Laws are needed to force farmers to slaughter infected flocks and poultry at risk of infection, she told reporters today in the capital, Jakarta.
Human Risk
The government's strategy of using vaccines, disinfecting coops and incinerating dead birds hasn't prevented the H5N1 avian influenza strain from becoming endemic in the country of 1.3 billion poultry.
This week, Indonesian officials will meet representatives from United Nations agencies, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Epicentre France and Japan's National Institute for Infectious Diseases to assess the country's avian flu situation. Health experts will be asked to provide recommendations to the government and develop strategies for the rapid response and containment of outbreaks, the WHO said last week.
The H5N1 virus is one of 16 H5 subtypes. Only viruses of the H5 and H7 subtypes are known to cause the highly pathogenic form of the disease. Not all viruses of the H5 and H7 subtypes are highly pathogenic and not all will cause severe disease in poultry, according to the WHO.
The United Nations health agency said H5 and H7 viruses are probably introduced to poultry flocks in their low pathogenic form. When allowed to circulate in poultry populations, the viruses can mutate, usually within a few months, into the highly pathogenic form.
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Canada widened quarantine measures to contain bird flu on Prince Edward Island, where an infected gosling was found on a farm last week.
Tests are under way to check if the virus is the H5N1 strain that has killed more than 140 million poultry and at least 129 people, mainly in Asia. A neighboring property was quarantined to prevent a spread of the virus, identified as an H5 subtype of avian influenza, Marc Richard, a spokesman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said yesterday.
``The neighbor also has chickens, and since it's a contagious disease, we've gone in, ordered them not to move, have taken samples from the chickens and sent those off to the lab to be analyzed,'' Richard said in a phone interview from Ottawa. ``There is zero indication of disease'' on the second farm.
Animal health officials worldwide are monitoring for H5N1, described by some scientists as the most lethal avian flu strain yet recorded, which has spread to almost 40 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa this year. Diseased fowl increase the risk for humans and create more opportunity for the virus to mutate into a pandemic form capable of killing millions of people.
The H5N1 virus has infected at least 227 people in 10 countries since late 2003, the Geneva-based World Health Organization said on June 16.
Almost all human cases have been linked to close contact with sick or dead birds, such as children playing with them or adults butchering them or plucking feathers, according to the WHO. Thorough cooking of meat and eggs kills the virus.
Hungarian Cull
Hungarian officials slaughtered 3,000 more domestic poultry over the weekend on concern they were exposed to the virus, the Magyar Nemzet newspaper reported today, citing Miklos Suth, Hungary's chief veterinarian.
A farmer in the southern town of Szank raised the alarm after noticing one of his geese behaved strangely, according to the report. Veterinary officials culled all 700 birds at the farm and 2,300 others in a one-kilometer (0.62 mile) radius, the newspaper said.
In Indonesia, which reported its 50th human case last week, authorities must cull more poultry to arrest bird flu. The disease has spread across two-thirds of the country's provinces and killed more than one person a week this year.
``We have to do more preemptive culling, there's no alternative,'' said Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, vice chairwoman of a government-appointed committee on avian and pandemic influenza. Laws are needed to force farmers to slaughter infected flocks and poultry at risk of infection, she told reporters today in the capital, Jakarta.
Human Risk
The government's strategy of using vaccines, disinfecting coops and incinerating dead birds hasn't prevented the H5N1 avian influenza strain from becoming endemic in the country of 1.3 billion poultry.
This week, Indonesian officials will meet representatives from United Nations agencies, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Epicentre France and Japan's National Institute for Infectious Diseases to assess the country's avian flu situation. Health experts will be asked to provide recommendations to the government and develop strategies for the rapid response and containment of outbreaks, the WHO said last week.
The H5N1 virus is one of 16 H5 subtypes. Only viruses of the H5 and H7 subtypes are known to cause the highly pathogenic form of the disease. Not all viruses of the H5 and H7 subtypes are highly pathogenic and not all will cause severe disease in poultry, according to the WHO.
The United Nations health agency said H5 and H7 viruses are probably introduced to poultry flocks in their low pathogenic form. When allowed to circulate in poultry populations, the viruses can mutate, usually within a few months, into the highly pathogenic form.
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