#13,756
Over the past couple of weeks there have been a couple of scattered reports of HPAI H5N1 activity in and around Puri, Orrisa involving both poultry (see OIE notification #29849) and crows (OIE notification #28953).
While far less frequently reported than a few years ago, H5N1 continues to pop up in India and neighboring countries.Today, there are new reports of peacock deaths at the Patna, Bihar zoo - some 600 km to the north - which have been attributed to the H5N1 virus. According to multiple press reports, the Sanjay Ghandi Biological Park has been closed to visitors, to allow for disinfection.
Patna zoo closed till further orders after six peacocks die of H5N1 virus
Samples of the dead peacocks were sent to Bhopal and Kolkata for tests, which confirmed the presence of avian influenza virus.
The Patna zoo was closed on Tuesday after strains of avian influenza virus were found in six dead peacocks, PTI reported. The Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, Patna, will be shut until further orders, forest officials said.
“We are not sure how the peacocks contracted the virus,” Bihar Principal Chief Conservator of Forests DK Shukla said. “Birds from outside tend to fly inside the sprawling campus. That could be a possible reason but that is a matter of investigation.”
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Unlike Egypt, China, and many other Southeast Asian countries which have dealt extensively with H5N1, India has never reported a human infection.
Whether this is due to the clade of the virus circulating in India, the use of antivirals by cullers, less-than-comprehensive surveillance and/or testing & and reporting, or some other factor is unknown.While H5N1 clades have been generally on the decline the past few years - supplanted in many regions by H5N6/H5N6 subtypes - they still circulate in Africa and parts of Asia, continue to evolve, and retain the ability to reinvent themselves.
Which is why we watch outbreaks like these for any signs that these viruses are changing.
