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Every few weeks the USGS National Wildlife Health Center puts together a summary of recent avian flu reports in wild birds, poultry, humans, and other animals reported around the world.
You’ll also find an interactive map, showing avian influenza outbreaks around the world, which you can customize by date range, host, and virus types.
As you can see from the map above – which depicts incidents since December 1st, 2010 – Japan and the Korean Peninsula have seen the bulk of the reported activity.
Note: Not all avian influenza activity gets reported.
Bird flu outbreaks among poultry in Egypt and Indonesia are so common as to rarely command media notice, and so the mappings of these outbreaks are almost certainly underreported.
And there are regions of China, Southeast Asia, and Africa where surveillance and reporting is poor to non-existent.
The latest update (a few excerpts appear below) details known AI outbreaks over the past month in wild birds, poultry and humans in Japan, South Korea, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, and the UK.
You’ll also find links to recent scientific articles and publications, and an extensive list of useful AI resources in the sidebar on the right side of the page.
Follow the link to read it in its entirety.
Avian Influenza Information
News Update, January 14
H5N1 in Wild birds
JapanAccording to the Izumi Municipal government, two more hooded cranes (Grus monacha) wintering in the Izumi plain in Kagoshima Prefecture tested positive for bird flu in a preliminary test. So far a total of five cranes are confirmed to be infected with H5N1 bird flu. As of January 4, the city said that it has not seen evidence of massive deaths of wild birds.
South Korea. South Korea's farm ministry reported on December 28 that it found 20 dead spectacled teal ducks, apparently infected with H5N1 bird flu, and has taken emergency decontamination measures. The birds were identified as mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) in the official report to OIE, but some veterinarians in the country said they are likely to be Baikal Teal (Anas formosa) instead. The dead birds were found 430 km south of Seoul and were the third group of birds reported dead from H5N1 in South Korea in December.
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H5N1 in Poultry
Bangladesh. Bird flu broke out on a commercial poultry farm in Dhaka division on January 1, killing 530 birds on a farm of 6500. The remaining birds were culled to prevent the spread of the disease. The origin of the outbreak is unknown, but preventative measures such as stamping out, movement control within the country, and disinfection of the premises have been put in place. Tests by the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute and the Central Disease Investigation Laboratory in Dhaka were positive for H5N1 bird flu.
<SNIP>
South Korea. On December 31, South Korea reported the first outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in domestic poultry in two years. Two poultry farms in South Jeolla province and Chungcheong province first detected bird flu on December 29 as birds began to die off. Together the farms contained a total of 27,850 chickens and ducks. Both farms have been placed under quarantine with authorities moving to cull and bury their ducks and chickens to prevent the disease from spreading.
Quarantine officials had stepped up inspections on wild birds and urged poultry businesses to take extra precautions, like setting up nets around their farms to keep out wild birds, after wild birds were confirmed to have the disease earlier in the month. More than 100,000 birds have been slaughtered in efforts to contain the disease and health authorities placed a quarantine zone over a 10 km (6.25 mile) radius, restricting movements of vehicles and people and carrying out emergency disinfection.
The latest confirmation effectively ends South Korea's bird flu-free status and will halt exports of chickens, ducks and related products. The bird flu outbreak is likely to further strain the country's health system, which has been struggling to contain swine flu and foot-and-mouth disease cases across the country.
Granted, most of these incidents have already been reported in Flublogia.
But this time of year, when we get numerous reports coming in from a variety of regions, it is convenient to find them aggregated and summarized.
For more on the Korean story, some recent blogs include:
Korea: H5N1 & FMD Outbreaks Continue
South Korea Intensifies Bird Flu Response
S. Korea: Bird Flu Moves North
South Korea Battles Bird Flu, FMD
S. Korea: 3rd Poultry Farm Positive For Bird Flu
