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| H5N8 Outbreaks Since July 1st - Credit IZSV |
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Italy's summer struggles with HPAI H5N8 continues into the month of September, with the IZSV (Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie) reporting their 20th poultry outbreak since July 20th.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Italy
2016/2017 – H5N5, H5N8
Outbreaks | PDF (last update: 04/09/2017)
Map | PDF (last update: 04/09/2017)
September 2017
04/09/2017 – On 2 September, the National Reference Center for Avian Influenza (NRL) confirmed a new positivity for Avian Influenza A virus subtype H5N8 in a fattening turkey farm in the province of Cremona (Lombardy). At the moment of the epidemiological inquiry, there were around 23,200 turkeys (107 days-old). In the days before the confirmation, mild nervous and respiratory symptomatology and a slight increase in mortality was observed in one of the sheds. No symptomatology was reported in the other sheds. Culling, cleaning and disinfection procedures are ongoing.
This unusual persistence of H5N8 throughout the summer in Italy, and to a far lesser extent in Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK (see DEFRA: Outbreak Assessment On H5N8 In Europe - Summer 2017) has raised concerns that avian flu may be becoming a year-round threat.
On Friday, in DEFRA Warns Of `Constant Risk' From Avian Flu, the UK's DEFRA released a new infographic, and biosecurity advice for poultry holders going into this winter.When the H5N8 virus returned to Europe last fall after an 18 month absence it brought with it a number of genetic and behavioral changes attributed to a reassortment that likely took place sometime in the spring of 2016 (see EID Journal: Reassorted HPAI H5N8 Clade 2.3.4.4. - Germany 2016).
Among the changes noted, this reinvented HPAI H5 virus has displayed rapid geographic spread (including to Africa and the Middle East), increased virulence in wild birds, an expanded avian host range, and most recently, unusual environmental persistence even into the summer.Given the unpredictability and continual evolution of the growing array of avian flu viruses circulating around the world, it is hard to know what - if anything - will return this fall. Three years ago, North America was struck by its worst ever avian epizootic, but has remained remarkably quiet since the summer of 2015.
While this winter's bird flu impact is impossible to know, we are quickly approaching the start to this year's fall migration (see 2016's Sci Repts.: Southward Autumn Migration Of Waterfowl Facilitates Transmission Of HPAI H5N1), and so we shouldn't have to wait long to find out.
