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While Kuwait has yet to identify any human victims of the H5N1 virus, the bird flu is taking a terrible toll on their poultry industry. This from the Arab Times.
Devastation; Bird flu … No human cases
KUWAIT CITY (Agencies): Bird flu has devastated egg production in Kuwait as authorities culled a majority of the country’s layer chickens amid a rise in the number of H5N1 virus cases, officials said on Saturday. Health Minister Maasouma Al-Mubarak told a press conference the number of birds infected with the deadly virus rose in the past week from 57 to 96. She added that no human case has been detected after tests on around 552 people who had been in contact with the birds. Twenty of the new cases were detected in three commercial poultry farms in Wafra, south of Kuwait City on the Saudi border, where authorities have culled 1.1 million layer chicken over the past three days.
“This figure represents about 60 percent of total layer chickens in Kuwait ... which produced 88 percent of local needs,” said the head of the agriculture authority, Jassem Al-Bader. Some 1.5 million fowls have been culled since the outbreak was first reported on February 25, he said. Bader said the three commercial poultry farms are among 16 in the country. Broiler poultry farms, where no case of bird flu had been detected so far, produce about 32 million chicken annually.
Kuwait has slapped a total ban on the import and export of birds and closed down bird markets, as well as hundreds of shops that sell live chickens and the country’s only zoo. In November 2005, Kuwait announced the first case of a bird infected with the deadly H5N1 strain — a flamingo at a seaside villa. The H5N1 strain, the most aggressive form, has killed more than 160 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation, and seen millions of birds destroyed. H5N1 is an avian influenza subtype with pandemic potential, since it might ultimately adapt into a strain that is contagious among humans.
Dr Maasouma also said Kuwait had no bird flu human cases.
The announcement was made by the minister during a news briefing at the ministry, saying that local and international tests for suspected bird flu human cases came negative. It is in the interest of no one to keep relevant information secret, the minister said, adding that the Kuwaiti government was dealing with the issue in full transparency and clarity. A total of 1.5 million birds have been killed in the country so far, Al-Mubarak added.
It may seem trivial when compared to a pandemic that could kill millions, but the damage done to the poultry industry, and the ability of countries to feed their populace, has been significant and continues to expand.
Despite intensive culling, and the use of vaccines, many countries have learned a simple truth. Once entrenched, it is nearly impossible to eradicate this virus. Every time you think you've stamped it out, it pops back up.
Should this virus fail to acquire the ability to infect humans efficiently, it will still be a monumental problem for years to come.
