#14,018
Late yesterday the OIE published a notification of the first occurrence of HPAI H5N6 in Cambodia, although exactly which HPAI H5N6 was detected remains unclear.
HPAI H5N6 emerged in the spring of 2014 in China, Vietnam, and Laos (see FAO Warns On H5N6) - and has caused roughly 2 dozen human infections (many fatal) in China - but it isn't the only HPAI H5N6 virus in Asia.In early November of 2017 several dead mute swans were discovered in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture and were quickly determined to have been infected by an HPAI H5N6 virus.
A couple of weeks later, we learned from Tottori University: The Shimane HPAI H5N6 Was A New Reassortment - not a return of the HPAI H5N6 virus which had arrived from China the previous winter.Instead this new virus was a reassortment of the H5N8 virus which had ravaged European poultry the previous winter and an (unidentified) European HxN6 virus - and was reportedly similar to another H5N6 reassortment briefly reported from Greece last March.
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| Reassortment Of H5N8 & European HXN6 - Tottori University |
Since then, this European-origin HPAI H5N6 has been sporadically reported in South Korea, Taiwan, Northern Europe, and elsewhere in Japan. While the name's the same - unlike its Asian cousin - this Eurasian HPAI H5N6 has no record of ever infecting humans.
Based on the location - and the fact that neighboring Laos and Vietnam have both reported the more serious Asian H5N6 virus- it seems likely this latest report is related to the Chinese strain.
But we'll have to wait for a more definitive analysis to know for sure.
