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| HPAI H5 Since July 1st - Credit IZSV |
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After a two-week lull, which led authorities to declare `currently all outbreaks of Avian Influenza in Italy have been resolved' on the 18th, Italy's IZSV (Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie) today announced two new outbreaks (1 H5N8, 1 H5) in two different regions.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Italy
2016/2017 – H5N5, H5N8August 2017On 21 August, the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease confirmed as positive for Avian Influenza A virus a fattening turkey farm in Verona province, Veneto region (subtype H5), and a game birds farm in Lodi province, Lombardy (subtype H5N8).
At the moment of the epidemiological inquiry, in the fattening turkey farm there were 13.248 turkeys (females, 87 day-old). The symptoms started in the days before the confirmation, in particular from Friday there was a sudden increase in the mortality and a decrease in water and feed intake. Culling, cleaning and disinfection procedures are ongoing for this case, while the pre-emptive culling of an at-risk turkey farm, linked to the outbreak, has been planned for the next days.
Regarding the last case in Lombardy region, in the farm were present about 23.000 birds belonging to different species (pheasants, partridges, mallard hybrids), and the samples were collected after a clinical suspect. Further information on virus characterization and phylogenetic analysis on the two viruses will be provided as soon as available.
Compared to the rest of Europe, Italy came out of this past winter's record avian epizootic relatively unscathed, losing roughly 360,000 birds across 17 outbreaks between January 1st and May 30th.
Over the past 30 days, however, Italy has reported 15 additional outbreaks, affecting more than 800,000 birds. Hardest hit has been the Lombardy region (n=10), followed by Veneto (n=4).While we've seen a smattering of summer bird flu reports across Europe (see DEFRA: Outbreak Assessment On H5N8 In Europe - Summer 2017) - the most recent involving two dead swans in Switzerland - nearly all of the late summer (July & August) reporting has come out of Italy.
This summer activity is a decided change over what was seen with the H5N8 virus in past years, when the virus all but disappeared (see PNAS: The Enigma Of Disappearing HPAI H5 In North American Migratory Waterfowl).
But the virus that showed up in Europe last fall had undergone extensive changes (see EID Journal: Reassorted HPAI H5N8 Clade 2.3.4.4. - Germany 2016) during the summer of 2016. It now appears to be more virulent in wild and migratory birds (see here), and has demonstrated an ability to infect a much wider range of birds (see here).Even as H5N8 hangs on in Italy, and parts of Europe, we find ourselves only 30 to 40 days away from seeing the first arrivals of this fall's southward migration. As we saw in 2016's Sci Repts.: Southward Autumn Migration Of Waterfowl Facilitates Transmission Of HPAI H5N1, this is the time of year when migratory birds are believed most likely to carry, and spread HPAI viruses.
While past performance is no guarantee of future events, we will need to be on guard for the possibility that HPAI viruses will return to Europe, Asia, and potentially even North America in the months ahead.
