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| Chhattisgarh - Credit Wikipedia |
#14,597
Over the Christmas/New Year's holidays disease reports tend to slow down, as both government agencies and media outlets are often short staffed, but late yesterday Shiloh at FluTrackers picked up a report of a `bird flu' outbreak in Chhattisgarh State, in central India.
India: Bird Flu’ alert issued in Chhattisgarh
Thursday, 26 December 2019 | Staff Reporter | RAIPUR
Directorate, Veterinary Services, Government of Chhattisgarh has issued ‘Bird Flu’ alert in the state after it was confirmed that incident of death of poultry birds in Government Poultry Cricle, Baikunthpur, Koriya was due to avian virus infection.
A letter issued by Director, Veterinary Services states that National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal has confirmed through a letter issued on Tuesday (December 24) that the fowls had died due to avian virus at the Government Poultry, Baikunthpur...
..As per reports around 5000 quails and chicken had died recently at the government poultry and hatcheries...
The type of `bird flu' is not specified in this, or any of the other media reports I've checked this morning. Over the past several years we've seen (mostly) HPAI H5N1 and occasionally HPAI H5N8 reported from India, and while it has never been sighted in India, China's HPAI H5N6 has to be considered a slim possibility as well.
Roughly a year ago, avian H5N6 Clade 2.3.4.4 was reported in Western Russia, nearly 6,000 km further west than it had ever been reported before.Last winter, we followed the slow northward march of HPAI H5N1 up the eastern coast of India and into Nepal (see map below), which culminated with Nepal's first confirmed human infection with the virus (see WHO SEARO Statement On Nepal H5N1 Case).
The tabloid nature of many of India's newspapers has led to some bombastic headlines the past 24 hours, including:
Bird Flu in Chhattisgarh: Bird flu panic in the state, eradicated more than 7000 poultry and chickensHealth teams are reportedly doing a survey of nearby households, looking for potential human infections, but none have been reported. Despite a number of suspected infections over the years, India has never confirmed a human H5Nx infection.
