Bird Flu Center

The Iberian Peninsula country has stepped up its anti bird flu policies, in an attempt to prevent a future spread of the virus from neighbouring Spain, which recently detected the first cases of H5N1. The report of a wild bird being infected with the deadly virus in Spain has prompted Portuguese Agriculture Minister Jaime Silva to pay particular attention to prevention methods, although he says that the country has had contingency plans in place for this matter for a long time. However, he said, it is not yet time to raise the alarm. Around 6,000 poultry and birds in Portugal have been tested this year alone and no trace of the highly pathogenic bird flu virus has been detected. Earlier this month, the Portuguese national veterinarian association had decided to beef up measures against the virus strain, especially in poultry farms and markets along the country. The bird species detected with the virus in Spain is also to be found in Portugal, so experts do not rule out the possibility of crested grebes in Portugal carrying the virus as well.

The first Spanish case of bird flu was confirmed by a laboratory in the Iberic Peninsula, testing a sample taken from a wild bird. The Agriculture Ministry issued a press release saying The National Reference Laboratory had confirmed a case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. A great crested grebe was found dead in the northern province of Alava, in a marsh area outside the city of Vitoria. Even last year, Spanish officials admitted that bird flu spreading to the country was only a matter of time, as several European countries were already confronted with the disease and Spain is on the route of northern-bound migratory birds from Africa.

 

European Commission members have agreed that an investigation is necessary into the case of state aid granted by Italy to support its poultry industry, badly affected by falling sales after the recent bird flu outbreaks around the world. The plan was for the Italian government to buy 17,000 tonnes of poultry meat as well as other poultry products which were initially intended for human consumption, suspend tax payments and social security contributions and grant some sort of financial aid for loans to help convert and restructure poultry businesses, in the light of recent bird flu scares.

The European Commission considers these measures unnecessary and endangering the Community state aid provisions. There is an interval of one month where the Italian government is allowed to submit its comments back to the Brussels committee and afterwards any other interested party will be allowed to make comments, before the Commission will make a decision. The investigation is a result of the European Union’s strict and complex rules regarding state aid, initially designed to ensure that no government can use it to offer an unfair advantage to any single sector.

Bird flu’s appearance in Romania is relatively recent, however the violence of one of the outbreaks among poultry has triggered wide concerns among the inhabitants of the Southeastern country. A rapid answer by the authority put in practice by mass culling of the fowl in the infected areas has closed the gap on the virus, with the government ready to declare the disease eliminated once again.

In September 2005 the Ministry of Agriculture started a prevention plan against the virus, which included vaccination of people from several counties, who were likely to come into contact with poultry. The Danube Delta was seen as a likely place for a flu outbreak, as it stood in the path of migrating waterfowl coming from Asia, the virus’ birthplace.

Barely a month later, the virus was discovered in Ceamurlia de Jos, a village situated in the east of the country, in the county of Tulcea. All the birds were killed and the area was immediately placed under quarantine, with strict disinfection rules followed for those allowed in or out of the perimeter. Another measure was prohibiting hunting in the Danube Delta for the last months of the year, the ones in which wild bird migration takes place, with restrictions being imposed in several other counties.  Several days later, the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus was confirmed and brought the country into international spotlight as the latest occurrence of the disease.

Local authorities in other parts of the country were alerted by the situation and decided to update their veterinary health procedures. Although people were told not to panic many attributed any poultry death to the feared disease and hundreds of suspicions had to be investigated. Already the poultry industry started to feel the pressure, as public trust started to fade and producers even feared their exports could be banned to prevent a possible spread. Another hotbed of the virus was confirmed in Maliuc, while in scarce places wild birds were found dead and later tested positive for the disease. The same measures were imposed and the surveillance area was extended.

European experts into the matter came to Romania to provide assistance to health officials, while a mobile laboratory was brought from the United States to speed up the testing on birds suspected to carry the disease. By November 11th, the virus was eradicated from its first hotbed, but only a few days later the village of Caraorman, in the same county, was placed under quarantine, after four hens were discovered to be carriers of the virus.  By December, several other areas were quarantined, as new outbreaks of the virus appeared across 5 counties. Authorities now had to deal with the population disbelief about the disease. As many households in villages affected by the virus relied on the poultry raised, some were opposing the culling of the birds or tried to hide them from the personnel entitled to put the sanitary measures in practice.  Ialomita entered the list of counties where the virus was found, but an abrupt drop in temperatures had public authorities hoping the disease will be contained and that wild birds will shift their migratory path towards Southern, warmer climates, thus, out of the country.

In January 2006, as a modern care unit designed to hold possible avian flu patients was opened in a hospital in Bucharest, suspicions of possible poultry infected with the disease appeared at the outskirts of the capital city. During the same period, The European Union helped fund a modern testing laboratory to help in the bird flu prevention effort of Romanian authorities. During February, outbreaks were also found in Dolj and Mehedinti counties and security perimeters were set around each of the new hotbeds. A statistic published February 16th gave indication of 25 outbreaks already extinguished, 6 being isolated and in the process of eliminating the virus, and 3 other suspicions being analyzed.

On March 7th, the Romanian Minister of Agriculture, Gheorghe Flutur, estimated that the danger of new bird flu outbreaks in the country will diminish with the arrival of warm weather, but that caution should still be exerted. 41 outbreaks were on record at that time, with 25 already under control and put out. It was estimated the disease had cost the Romanian government 20 million euros. Later that month, Cernavoda became the first town to be placed under quarantine after a household was discovered to have bird flu infected chickens. The main concern however, was raised by the fact that new outbreaks of the virus appeared just 10 kilometers outside Bucharest, authorities fearing an outbreak in the capital would be very difficult to contain.

On April 21st a press release announced the closure of the last of the 51 bird flu outbreaks detected in the 6 months passed since the first case was reported. Official statistics indicate that 420,000 birds have been culled, in 16,100 households across 9 counties. Barely 3 weeks later though, the virus was discovered again in chickens raised in the vicinity of a poultry farm in Codlea (county of Brasov). Tests on the farm birds also shown the presence of the virus and worries immediately arose that infected birds or meat had already been transported to other farms or even stores across the country. Large quantities of poultry or meat were confiscated from the farm and from shops where the company had distributed its products. The owners of the farm, along with health officials in the region, were placed under arrest or placed under investigation for negligence and ignoring health regulations. Also in May, the virus reached two administrative sectors of the capital city and streets were quarantined in an attempt to isolate the outbreak.

The virus spread rapidly among poultry and wild birds and on May 28th, a government official stated that 88 new outbreaks had been confirmed, with other 23 suspicions awaiting laboratory confirmation. Two days later the number rose to 116 confirmed cases and to 121 the following day.  During the month of June the outbreaks were gradually contained and testing to quarantined areas confirmed the elimination of the virus. As of July 4th, the time of the last official update, only 8 remaining outbreaks of the virus were left and waiting to be officially declared clear of the disease.

Bulgary intends to build its first bird flu laboratory situated outside its capital by the end of the year, in Aksakovo, as reported by the head of the National Veterinary Medical Service, Zheko Baichev. The facility’s construction has already begun and is scheduled to last until the end of the year. The United States will provide an aid worth around 450,000 dollars, including medical equipment. The national government will provide another quarter of a million dollars for the project. Another official declared two other inspection facilities will be designed for marine traffic and are to be built at Varna and Bourgas.

With the first appearance of the disease far to the East, in Hong Kong, in 1997, Europe has considered itself relatively sheltered from the threat. However the virus has crossed boundaries far faster than expected and by the end of 2005 it was present in Eastern Europe as well. Countries like Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, Greece and Bulgaria, have had to face outbreaks of  the virus in different parts of their territory, but so far the suspiciouns that the infection might have spread to humans have remained just that. That is with the exception of Turkey, which, by June 20th, had even reported 4 deaths caused by the H5N1 strain which infected 12 people in total.

Close cooperation with international institutions such as the World Health organization, has helped most countries contain the virus, although Romania in particular was confronted with waves of the infection and a large number of hotbeds at a certain time. Other European countries are not crossing hands and are implementing prevention plans against the disease, to ensure a certain level of preparedness for themselves. Western countries in particular are paying close attention to suspicious cases of infections in both animals and humans, while some have even started research projects meant to develop flu drugs into a possible vaccine for the disease. Such projects are based in countries like France and Hungary, while the United Kingdom has the main facility for testing samples for the deadly virus.

Denmark has confirmed cases of bird flu infections were discovered in a farm from the island of Funen. The entire flock was culled after laboratory testing revealed the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus was present in dead birds and all exports of poultry from the location have been halted. Until now only wild birds had been discovered to carry the virus, but the country was already alarmed by the rapid spread of the virus worldwide. The Siberian town of Omsk is one of the latest to report the virus affecting its bird population and the main fear now is that new strains could find a way to be easily transmitted among humans, which could give birth to a world epidemic causing high rates of mortality.

Researchers working for the Sanofi Pasteur Institute in France claim a vaccine is being developed which could be effective against bird flu. Trials have shown good results of the drug, but some observers are still showing caution towards the announcement. Scientists say the virus has six separate versions, all using an inactive strain of H5N1 and that the vaccine could produce enough neutralizing antibodies in humans to completely destroy the virus in an infected individual. The drug was tested on 300 volunteers so far and according to published results, each of the six versions was efficient in raising the immunity level in the volunteers. Adjuvants are also used to boost the effect of the inactive virus which triggers the body into producing neutralizing agents.

However, experts warn until a pandemic strain occurs, the vaccine cannot be guaranteed to work against a general type of the virus. The H5N1 virus is highly feared because it is like to mutate before sparkling a pandemic and becoming very difficult to contain. An entire new strain will need several months of research to produce an accurate vaccine.

With health care being the prominent subject at the Saint Petersburg G8 Summit in July, the host nation is ready to present an ambitious plan to fight bird flu spread. Russia has already started work on a vaccine for the disease and the government has moved important funds towards the Vektor research center, a Siberian-based institute which will closely monitor the spread of influenza.

Russia has not yet faced human infections, but 1.5 million birds were killed by the disease or culled in an effort to control it, since February of this year. The center in Novosibirsk is considered appropriate for the task, as it has a medical university nearby and would be able to survey Eastern Europe, as well as Central Asia. The area is of particular importance, as close human and economic contacts in the region are very likely to aid in the spread of the disease.

The Russian emergencies ministry announced last Tuesday, through its Siberian office, that a violent outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus discovered in the Tuva Republic is causing the death of more and more birds. Since June 15th more than 1,600 birds were found dead around the Ubsu-Nur Lake situated in the Ovyursky district of the republic. The virus was confirmed after laboratory testing and concerns that it could be spreading even more are intensifying. Unofficial reports from Russia indicate a greater figure, of over three thousand dead birds found in the province just north of Mongolia.

The outbreak is thought to have its origin in the Qinghai Lake epidemic of 2005, where over 5,000 birds were found dead, primarily bar headed geese. This only adds to the worries that 2006 will see the spread of the virus to more countries and become a real threat to world health.

Police officers in Hungary are being asked to step up and be subjected to trials for the country’s own human bird flu vaccine. The Interior Ministry is seeking 240 police, men and women, to volunteer for a trial to last four months. Local newspaper Nepszabagdsag says it is not certain how popular this request will be or how many officers will need to temporarily quit their work for this. Hungary needs a total of 500 volunteers for this project, including children and elderly, after the private company Omninvest announced it is about to produce the world’s first human vaccine against the H5N1 virus, late last year. World Health Organization officials say they have not yet seen clear proof of the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Switzerland is ready to place an order for 8 million doses of a new type of vaccine designed to deal with the deadly H5N1 virus and other strains similar to it, in an attempt to prepare for an eventual pandemic affecting the country.

Apparently two vaccine producing companies will be contacted to provide the national stock, which should be supplied by next year, the government announced after a regular cabinet meeting. People living in Switzerland will be offered an initial protection when a flu pandemic breaks out, hopefully enough to allow time for a proper vaccine to be developed within a period of months to tackle the precise bird flu strain of the virus.

Bird flu cases in the UK have not been spotted yet, however with the world spread possibility of virus occurrances the future might bring the disease to the British Isles. The British boast the main testing laboratory for bird flu, at Weybridge. Whether you live in the UK or elsewhere, you will find the bird flu information here useful.

ERUSALEM, March 20 - Israel confirmed on Monday that the H5N1 strain of bird flu had been detected in two more locations in southern Israel, bringing the total number of infected sites to six, local newspaper Ha’aretz reported.

    The Israeli Agriculture Ministry made the announcement one day after it confirmed that the lethal H5N1 strain of avian flu led to the deaths of thousands of turkeys in southern Israel last week.

    The ministry said that the two communities– Nir Oz and Amir Oz– in western Negev desert in southern Israel, were located close to the communal farms where bird flu was first found.

    The ministry said that the H5N1 virus was blamed for the deaths of poultry there. The two communities have been ordered to cull thousands of birds.

    Israel has been the latest country hit by the deadly virus, which has killed some 100 people worldwide in the last few years and is spreading rapidly across the world.

    Experts fear that the disease, currently jumping from birds to humans through close contact, might mutate into a form that can easily pass among humans, leading to a global pandemic.

Israel completed on Saturday the burial of poultry suspected to be contracted with bird flu, bringing the number of birds destroyed since the outbreak of the epidemic to 1.2 million, local Ha’aretz newspaper reported.

Israeli veterinary services are now preparing for another possible outbreak of the disease in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are not destroying the infected birds out of fear of losing a key source of income without receiving compensation, the report said.

Israel Radio reported on Saturday that the World Bank promised to compensate Palestinian farmers who will be forced to cull fowl infected with the avian flu.

In contacts with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz agreed to donate two million U.S. dollars which would cover the losses of the Palestinian chicken- growers.

The World Bank announced it also planned to continue efforts to raise funds which would offset the losses in the Palestinian poultry sector, Israel Radio said.

The Palestinian agriculture minister confirmed on Friday that the deadly bird flu virus had been found in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

This is the second Gazan location with the outbreak following Gaza City being identified earlier this week.