Avian Flu Scan for Jul 20, 2015

News brief

FAO warns about further H5N1 spread in West Africa

Over concern that highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreaks will continue to spread in West Africa, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called for $20 million to assist with prevention and response activities, according to an FAO news article.

The plea follows recent HPAI H5N1 outbreaks in poultry in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast, and Ghana. The region experienced an incursion of the disease in 2006, but it was eliminated from West Africa in 2008. It then re-emerged late last year in Nigeria, the story noted. It spread from there, causing the deaths of 1.6 million birds so far.

Because H5N1 can infect humans, the FAO is working closely with the World Health Organization on country assessments, contingency plans, and other assistance.

"There is a real risk of further virus spread. Urgent action is needed to strengthen veterinary investigation and reporting systems in the region and tackle the disease at the root, before there is a spillover to humans," said Juan Lubroth, DVM, PhD, head of the FAO's Animal Health Service Division.

The agency will allocate the $20 million for bolstering weak veterinary systems, upgrading local labs, and putting FAO specialists on the ground in affected and at-risk nations, the story said.
Jul 20 FAO news story

Two more Taiwanese H5N2 outbreaks confirmed

Taiwan today reported two new outbreaks of HPAI H5N2 in poultry, the latest in a string of such events, according to a World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) report.

The first outbreak, which began Jul 2, affected a farm in Yunlin County in western Taiwan housing 7,700 ducks. After 1,533 of the birds died from the disease, the remainder were culled to prevent disease spread.

The second outbreak involves an abattoir in Pingtung County in the south with 1,376 native chickens. Seven of the birds died from H5N2, and the rest were euthanized. The outbreak began Jul 8.

Of 9,076 susceptible birds on the two properties, 1,540 died from infection and 7,536 were destroyed. Other response efforts include restriction of poultry movement and disinfection of the holdings.

Taiwan has battled dozens of outbreaks of avian flu this year, most caused by H5N2.
Jul 20 OIE report

WHO provides details on 5 recent H7N9 cases in China

The WHO over the weekend provided details on five H7N9 avian flu cases in China that have already been reported by local public health officials.

All the patients are men, from 58 to 77 years old, with a median age of 66. Three of the patients died, and the other two are in severe condition, the WHO said in a statement.

Two of the cases occurred in Anhui province, with one each in Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Zhejiang. All involved exposure to poultry or their environment. Illness-onset dates range from May 26 to Jun 18. The cases were all unrelated to each other.

The WHO said the Chinese government, which reported this information to the WHO on Jul 16, has strengthened its outbreak surveillance, reinforced medical treatment, and conducted risk communication with the public in response to H7N9 cases. The agency added that the overall risk to the public has not changed, with cases decreasing in recent weeks.
Jul 18 WHO statement

News Scan for Jul 20, 2015

News brief

South Korea MERS totals stable for more than 2 weeks

South Korea has gone 15 days without reporting a new MERS-CoV case, keeping the total at 186 cases, the country's Yonhap News Agency reported today. No deaths have been reported in 9 days, keeping the fatality count at 36.

The country will be considered free of the virus if it goes two incubation periods, a total of 28 days, without a new case.

Samsung Medical Center, which was the epicenter of the outbreak, resumed full operations today, Yonhap reported. On May 14 the facility shut down most of its services, because it, especially the emergency department, was the source of about half of the country's infections.

According to an update today from South Korea's Ministry of Health (MOH), 14 MERS-CoV Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) patients are still being treated, 11 of them in stable condition and 3 listed as unstable. Twenty-two people are still in quarantine, with 16,671 having completed their 14-day isolation and monitoring period.
Jul 20 Yonhap News story
Jul 20 Korean MOH update

Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia has gone 4 days without reporting a new MERS-CoV case, but over the past 4 days the country has reported two deaths in previously announced cases, according to updates from Saudi Arabia's MOH. One was a 77-year-old man from Jeddah whose death was announced Jul 17, and the other a 56-year-old woman from Riyadh whose death was announced Jul 18. Both had pre-existing conditions.

So far Saudi Arabia has confirmed 1,048 MERS cases since June of 2012, 462 of them fatal. Six people are still being treated for their infections, and 580 have recovered from the disease.
Jul 17 Saudi MOH statement
Jul 18 Saudi MOH statement

Review notes avian flu, rabies top list of wildlife-livestock diseases

Avian flu and rabies lead the list of the most-studied pathogens at the wildlife-livestock interface, and media interest may largely drive research on such diseases, according to a large meta-analysis today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Australian, UK, and Italian experts considered more than 78,000 studies published from 1912 to 2013 before analyzing 15,998. They found that the number of publications per year involving diseases at the wild-domestic interface increased continuously, with a shift from parasitic diseases to viral diseases over time.

Ten diseases, most of which can spread to people, accounted for half of the published research: avian flu (covered in 9.9% of studies), rabies (9.4%), salmonellosis (6.2%), bovine tuberculosis (TB; 5.7%), trichinollosis (5.0%), Newcastle disease (4.8%), brucellosis (4.2%), leptospirosis (4.1%), echinococcosis (3.8%), and toxoplasmosis (3.4%).

One third of publications addressed diseases at the wildlife-cattle interface, 25% at the wildlife-poultry interface, and 18% at the wildlife-swine interface. When broken down by specific interface, the most frequently studied interfaces were between species that are closely related—such as wild ungulates and domestic ones—or that share the same habitat. The team found that the interface between wild birds and poultry was cited the most, with the relative importance of other interfaces varying by geographic region.

The researchers found that trends in publication on avian flu and bovine TB correlated strongly with media interest in and research funding of these diseases. "These examples show that investments have largely been proportionate to the perceptions of disease at the wildlife–livestock interface, rather than actual costs associated with, e.g., animal and human morbidity, livestock production losses, and conservation impacts," they wrote.
Jul 20 Proc Natl Acad Sci abstract