Saturday, March 10, 2007
BAHRAIN READY TO FIGHT BIRD FLU
MANAMA, MARCH 10 (BNA) -- A JOINT GCC BODY HAS BEEN SET UP TO WARN AGAINST ANY SIGNS OF BIRD FLU, ESPECIALLY AMONG POULTRY, BEFORE IT ENTERS BAHRAIN. THIS WAS ANNOUNCED BY THE DIRECTOR OF ANIMAL RESOURCE AT THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND MUNICIPALITIES AFFAIRS, SALMAN ABDULNABI. IN A STATEMENT PUBLISHED IN THE ARABIC DAILY AL AYAM, ABDULNABI SAID HIS DIRECTORATE HAD NOT RECEIVED ANY REPORT THAT POULTRY IN BAHRAIN HAD BEEN HIT BY BIRD FLU AND ADDED THAT THE KINGDOM WOULD NOT ALLOW THE VIRUS TO ENTER THE COUNTRY. HE SAID THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH WAS CONSTANTLY CHECKING FROZEN POULTRY PRODUCTS IMPORTED FROM KUWAIT AS A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE. EM//BS 10-MAR-2007 11:58
Vietnam reinforces fight against bird flu
The Head of the National Steering Committee for Bird Flu Control has requested localities and relevant branches to simultaneously take preventive measures against bird flu as there is a high risk of recurrence nationwide.
The Steering Committee Head, Cao Duc Phat, who is also Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, sent an instructional message nationwide after the virus reportedly to re-occurred in the north, firstly in Hai Duong province on Feb. 14, and then Ha Tay and Hanoi.
The Committee Head warned that many provinces have so far concentrated only on vaccinating their fowl flocks against the disease but neglected to take other preventive concurrent measures.
In the message, Phat said "vaccination is only one of many essential measures to combat bird flu."
Accordingly, he required combined measures, including monitoring all poultry raising households, especially egg hatching farms and minimising the contact of poultry with migrating birds.
Farmers were asked not to raise chicken with waterfowl an
d other farm poultry animals and not to keep live poultry bought from markets with their poultry flock.
The Committee Head also asked for regular disinfection of poultry farms, slaughterhouses, poultry processing establishments, live birds markets, high-risk areas and former bird flu-hit spots.
Quarantine officials were told to intensify their control over the transport, slaughtering, and trade of poultry and poultry products. (VNA)
ref:http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/life/100307/life_v.htm
Avian Flu kills a girl in Vientiane
Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A 15-year-old girl has died from bird flu, the first confirmed death from the H5N1 virus in Laos. Meanwhile across South East Asia and the Arab peninsula a growing number of cases are certified of infection among birds.
Today Laos Health Minister Ponmek Dalaloy confirmed the girl’s death, and that she had been brought to a hospital in Thailand. The teenage girl had lived in a suburb of Vientiane, the capital, where the virus was found in poultry in January. The minister stressed the importance of surveillance and public awareness to avoid further infection. Most of the 5.9 million inhabitants live in remote villages.
January’s was the first case of bird infection in the country over 7 months. A 42-year-old Lao woman died of suspected bird flu last week, but tests have not yet confirmed the H5N1 virus.
South Korea. The 7th source of an infectious outbreak among birds since was confirmed today, despite the rigid quarantine measures put in place and the suppression of entire stock from poultry farms. The virus was found among the poultry from a farm in Chonan, circa 90 km. South of Seoul and not far from January’s contamination source.
Vietnam. Yesterday animal health authority confirmed that the H5N1 virus had killed a total of 1,150 birds in two separate farms in Dong Anh district near Hanoi. All remaining poultry was destroyed and the are is currently under maximum surveillance. In the last few weeks more infections were detected in ducks in the southern province of Vine Long and in chickens in the northern provinces of Hay Duong and Ha Tay.
China. March 6th an outbreak was detected in a farm in the Lhasa district (Tibet), where 680 fowl have already died from the virus. The region was already hit by the disease May last. March 1st it was confirmed that a 44 year old farmer had contracted the virus from contact with infected chicken in Jian’ou County (Fujian). She is the 22nd human carrier of the virus in the country and has caused concern because it hadn't been forewarned by a poultry outbreak in the surrounding area. Joanna Brent, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for the United Nations health agency, observed that this confirms that “an exclusive focus on outbreaks among birds is no longer sufficient”, particularly in countries such as China because vaccination programs there may mask the virus in poultry.
On March 5th, researchers at the University of California in Irvine traced the H5N1 virus that's infected people in a dozen Asian countries during the past four years to Guangdong; their study was based on analyzed genetic sequences from 192 avian- flu samples collected across Asia and northern Europe to identify mutations that have occurred during the virus's evolution. Yu Yedong, head of the Guangdong Animal Epidemic Prevention Institute and chief of the team at the Guangdong Bird Flu Prevention Office, described the study as “unscientific” and “ridiculous” and that it was impossible to find out where the H5N1 virus first emerged.
Hong Kong. Trade in wild fowl has been banned, after 13 birds were found dead from the virus in the last few months. About 70 percent of the infected birds were found within three kilometres of the Mong Kok bird market, where there is an elevated presence and heavy trade in birds. However frequent testing has produced negative results.
Kuwait. In recent weeks over 52 birds have been found dead from the virus in diverse locations The bird markets have been closet down and imports and exports of fowl prohibited. Even the zoo has been shut down following the discovery of an infected falcon.
Saudi Arabia. Health authorities have proclaimed a “state of emergency”, to prevent possible infection, following news reports on many cases along the border with Kuwait. Numerous poultry farms are under constant surveillance, as are all migratory birds.
Avian Influenza H5N1 Outbreak in Afghanistan - Press Release FAO
FAO Press Release – Kabul, 8 March 2007 (Update 2)
In our last press communiqué, we mentioned confirmed cases of H5N1 from samples from Nahea 4, Jalalabad City, of Nangarhar Province on 20 February 2007 and from Sawki district of Kunar Province on 24 February 2007.
Now H5N1 has been confirmed on 7 March 2007 in the districts of Khogiani, Rodat and Bati Kot of Nangarhar province, in the districts of Khas Kunar and Kuz Kunar in Kunar province and in Shah Shahid area of Nahea 8, in Kabul City.
Positive samples were collected from backyard poultry (domestic chickens). All the samples were analyzed and confirmed in the FAO and Naval Medical Research Unit 3 (NAMRU3) supported laboratory in the Central Veterinary Diagnostic and Research Laboratories (CVDRL).
The Government has taken immediate actions for disinfection, culling and quarantine of the affected areas. Further vaccinations will take place.
Bird flu story source: FAO
Rejction of bird flu in pardisan bird park in Tehran
Health Minister Kamaran Bagheri Lankarani said all of tests from Pardisan Park in Tehran are
negative.In this park several species of birds were displayed.
The minister said the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu had not been detected in Iran.
Bird Flu :: Laos bird flu - teenage Lao girl died
A Lao girl, 15-year-old, has died from bird flu, the country's first confirmed death from the H5N1 virus, reported by BBC and Reuters today.The Health Ministry has stepped up surveillance and public awareness efforts to check the spread of avian bird flu."Knowledge can save lives," Health Minister Ponmek Dalaloy said in a statement after the girl's de ath in a hospital in neighbouring Thailand on Wednesday.Since 2004, some 270 humans have been infected with bird flu in 10 countries, with about 167 fatalities, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization. With the flu spreading around the world, the virus has turned up in birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. So far, bird flu has mostly been passed from birds either to other birds or, in isolated cases, to humans.In June 2006, WHO reported the first case of human transference of the disease, when an Indonesian man died after catching the flu from his 10-year-old son. If the flu mutates into a strain that can pass more readily from human to human, people will have no immunity and the flu will probably pass rapidly from person to person, creating a pandemic. Flu vaccines can only be made to protect against a particular virus, and, since the virus had yet to be passed from human to human, no vaccine has been developed.
from:http://www.spiritindia.com/health-care-news-articles-7327.html
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