#14,033
While news of HPAI H5N8 has been scarce of late, the virus continues to circulate in parts of the Middle East and Africa, and has recently been reported in Bulgaria and Russia.
With the spring northbound migration now well underway, and millions of birds abandoning the tropics for their high latitude summer roosting grounds, we occasionally see outbreaks along the flyways.
Today the OIE has been notified of an HPAI H5N8 outbreak on a turkey farm in Israel, which lies beneath two major migratory bird routes (see map above); The Black Sea-Mediterranean and the East Asian-East Africa flyways.
Under Epidemiological Comments, it notes:
Israel is on the migration route of wild birds coming from Africa to Europe. The farm is located in an aquaculture area with multiple fish ponds, attracting migrating birds.A study, published in 2016 (see Sci Repts.: Southward Autumn Migration Of Waterfowl Facilitates Transmission Of HPAI H5N1), suggests that waterfowl can pick up new HPAI viruses in the spring (likely from poultry or terrestrial birds) on their way to their summer breeding spots - where they can potentially spread and evolve - and then redistribute them on their southbound journey the following fall.
This reshuffling of the avian flu deck every six months is one of the big reasons why we can see so much variance in activity - and avian flu subtypes - from one season to the next.
