Tuesday, April 26, 2016

OIE Notification: Multiple H5N1 Outbreaks In Iraq















#11,313

Officially, Iraq has been free of H5N1 avian flu since the spring of 2006, a time when a handful of poultry outbreaks and 3 human infections were reported.  How good surveillance, testing, and reporting has been over the past decade is an open question,

Over the years we've seen a number of Iraqi media reports suggestive of bird flu. 



None of these reports were ever confirmed by the OIE, and so today's report from the OIE of six, widely scattered H5N1 outbreaks (Dec 2015 - Feb 2016), is the first confirmation of H5N1 in Iraq in more than a decade.

























Last week, we saw the first outbreak of H5N1 in Lebanon: Minister of Agriculture followed by an FAO confirmation, while earlier this morning Sharon Sanders of FluTrackers  picked up a recent report of fresh poultry die offs in Iraq.

Iraq - Unknown disease killed at least 60,000 poultry causing price rise in several provinces including Muthanna - April 17, 2016

We'll have to wait to see if this latest die off is linked to H5N1.