#12,224
The report earlier today of a large HPAI-related bird die off in and around Lake Victoria in Uganda has been confirmed via the OIE with two updates, one for wild birds and one for exposed poultry, with the subtype listed as HPAI H5. Two outbreaks among wild birds along the northern and western shore of Lake Victoria are described, involving roughly 2000 birds with 1,200 fatalities.
We'll have to wait a bit for a more precise identification before we'll know if this is H5N1, H5N8, or some other subtype of HPAI H5.
The main OIE notification follows:
Epidemiology
Source of the outbreak(s) or origin of infection
- Contact with wild species
Epidemiological comments There are still continuous deaths of wild ducks and birds along the shores and islands of Lake Victoria in Masaka and Wakiso districts. In Masaka alone, wild and domestic birds are dying at alarming numbers and in Lutembe wetland white-winged terns are the ones dying. This is already a big threat to over thirty million domestic poultry in Uganda which calls for an urgent response to control the spread of the disease from wild birds to domestic birds.
