Photo Credit – FAO
# 7160
Yesterday, in Chinese MOA: No H7N9 Positive Birds Found On Farms, we looked a statement from China’s Ministry of Agriculture that indicated that out of thousands of samples tested, only a handful (n=38) of live-market birds (and 1 wild pigeon) have actually tested positive for the H7N9 virus.
You may recall that earlier reports (see Shanghai: Testing Reveals No Widespread H7N9 In Market Poultry) failed to find more than a few infected live-market birds, and to date, the H7N9 virus has not been found on any farms in poultry or in pigs.
And while infected poultry continue as the number one suspect in vectoring the virus to humans, more questions were raised yesterday in the wake of report that 40% Of H7N9 Cases Have `No Clear History Of Poultry Exposure’.
All of which leaves us with a whole lot of questions, and very few satisfactory answers.
Helen Branswell has more on this epidemiological enigma, including reaction from Gregory Hartl, spokesperson for the World Health Organization, and Michael T. Osterholm, Director of CIDRAP in:
Few positives tests in poultry and pigs beg the question: Where is H7N9 flu?
By: Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press
As China struggles to find the source of the new flu infecting a growing number of its citizens, tests of the usual animal suspects are mostly coming back negative. No pigs and few poultry have so far tested positive for H7N9.
International health officials are scratching their heads over the paucity of positive bird tests for a bird flu, especially given that the human case count is more than double the number of positive bird findings. As of Wednesday, 82 people had been infected and 17 had died.
