Published Date: 2007-06-29 15:00:03
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Avian influenza (117): Germany, wild birds
Archive Number: 20070629.2090
AVIAN INFLUENZA (117): GERMANY, WILD BIRDS
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[1]
Date: Thu 28 Jun 2007
Source: DPA via Earthtimes [edited]
<http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/77349.html>
German scientists confirmed on Thursday [28 Jun 2007] that the bird flu
virus found last week [reported 23 Jun 2007] in southern Germany had a
common source with a virus detected this month [June 2007] in Czech poultry
and said it was probably spread by a wild bird. Elke Reinking, a
spokeswoman for the Friedrich Loeffler animal health institute (FLI) on the
Baltic island of Riems, said, "We assume infected wild birds infected both
the Czech poultry and the water fowl in Germany."
She said it would be "highly unusual" for meat exported from the Czech
poultry farm to have brought the virus across the border, as suggested
earlier by German agriculture officials.
About a dozen swans in Germany have been found dead from H5N1, an avian
influenza virus, which experts fear will transmute into human influenza and
cause major worldwide loss of life.
Reinking said an analysis of the viral DNA showed a 99.2 per cent match
between the Czech outbreak and the virus in dead swans in the German city
of Nuremberg. Both samples were also very similar to viral DNA collected in
Kuwait and sequenced in Weybridge, Britain.
--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail rapporteur Mary Marshall
[It would be helpful if the investigating laboratory could make public the
information on the similarity of current isolates from German swans and
Czech turkeys (as well as the Czech swan, recently reportedly suspected?!)
to Kuwaiti isolates. The Kuwaiti isolates were derived from poultry and
from "captive hunting" falcons. Allegedly, falcons were imported to Kuwait
from central Asia. Falconry is practised in Europe as well; relevant data
would be welcomed. - Mod.AS]
******
[2]
Date: Thu 28 Jun 2007
Source: Reuters Foundation AlertNet [edited]
<http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28852930.htm>
The deadly strains of bird flu that has killed birds in the Czech Republic
and southern Germany are similar and most likely have a common origin,
Germany's top state veterinary laboratory said on Thursday [28 Jun 2007].
The Czech Republic reported finding the deadly H5N1 strain of avian
influenza virus at 2 poultry farms and in a dead swan. Germany has found
the virus in a number of wild birds in the eastern state of Saxony and
southern state of Bavaria.
Germany's Friedrich Loeffler Institute said it compared the viruses found
in a wild swan near the Bavarian city of Nuremberg with samples from a
Czech turkey farm and found that they had a 99.2 per cent match. "The
degree of similarity points to an as yet undetermined common origin for
both viruses," the institute said in statement.
The institute said it was not clear if there was a direct connection
between the outbreaks in Bavaria and Czech Republic, but said they appeared
to be the highly pathogenic Asian strain of H5N1 circulating in the Middle
East.
Last year [2006], some 13 European Union member states had confirmed cases
of bird flu -- Germany, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Britain, the Czech
Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, France, and Hungary.
Bird flu has been spreading across South ast Asia, killing 2 people in
Vietnam this month [June 2007], the 1st deaths there since 2005.
Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed nearly 200 people out of over 300 known
cases, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). None of the
victims were from Europe.
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail rapporteur Mary Marshall
[The German findings described above fall in line with results of
investigations by the UK reference laboratory, which tested the Czech
isolate, as apparent from the following preliminary information, included
in fax 711 sent by EC on Tue 26 Jun 2007 to the Chief veterinary officers
of the member states: "The preliminary analysis of the haemagglutinin (HA)
gene of the virus isolated from the clinical materials originating from the
infected turkey farm in the Czech Republic, [have been] completed by the
CRL (European Community Reference Laboratory) in Weybridge. The results are
indicative of a new independent introduction of HPAI of H5N1 subtype
compared to those detected previously within the EU". - Mod. AS]
******
[3]
Date: Thu 28 Jun 2007
From: Thijs Kuiken <t.kuiken@erasmusmc.nl>
Identification of infected wild birds
-------------------------------------
I notice that some contributors are becoming a little slack in their
identification of wild birds infected with H5N1 virus. For example, it was
several days before the species of swan and goose from Germany were known,
and I still don't know the species of swan affected in the Czech Republic.
Even the EU Animal Disease Notification System does not identify wild birds
to species.
As we have written previously [see commentary further], it is very
important from an epidemiological point of view to have precise information
about the species of wild bird infected with H5N1 virus.
--
Thijs Kuiken
Professor of Comparative Pathology
Department of Virology
Erasmus MC
3015 GE Rotterdam
The Netherlands
<t.kuiken@erasmusmc.nl>
[We wholeheartedly endorse Dr Kuiken's reminder of a previous call for
detailed reports regarding the species of tested birds, positive or otherwise.
In the previous call, dated 31 Oct 2005 [see ProMED-mail 20051031.3181],
Thijs Kuiken, Ron Fouchier, and Ab Osterhaus of the Erasmus Medical Centre,
Rotterdam, explained the need for the mentioned details as follows:
"The precise identity of wild birds in which avian influenza viruses is
detected is important to understand the epidemiology of influenza. The wild
bird species involved is particularly important with regard to their
migratory patterns and behavior. For the current H5N1 virus outbreak,
knowledge of the bird species involved is crucial to help direct
surveillance activities for influenza virus in wild birds. We recommend
that, whenever possible, people submitting information provide both the
common and scientific names of the wild bird species in which influenza
virus has been detected, for example, whooper swan (_Cygnus cygnus_) and
grey heron (_Ardea cinerea_). If this is not provided in the original
report, we ask moderators to request this information with the same
tenacity with which they insist on determination of subtype and
pathogenicity of the influenza virus involved".
On top of the deficient information on the identity of infected individual
birds, this moderator is puzzled by the (seeming?) lack of satisfactory
scientific evidence on the pathogenesis of HPAI H5N1 in wild birds,
particularly in those species that have been incriminated as potentially
involved in the spread of the pathogen. Experimental infection trials have
been performed in several domestic avian species, in mice, and in several
carnivores. Any information on experimental infection trials in wild avian
species to study the pathogenesis of the virus in them, particularly the
clinico-pathological manifestations and the virus dynamics (rate and
duration of viraemia, possible carrier state), will be very much
appreciated. - Mod.AS]
See Also
Avian influenza (116): Germany (Bavaria), OIE 20070628.2082Avian influenza (115): Togo, Bangladesh, Czech Republic 20070628.2079
Avian influenza (113): Germany (Bavaria, Saxony) 20070627.2068
Avian influenza (112): Germany (Saxony), wild birds 20070626.2064
Avian influenza (111): Germany (Bavaria), wild birds 20070626.2055
Avian influenza (109): Germany (Bavaria), wild birds 20070624.2040,
20070624.2041
Avian influenza (106): Czech Republic, turkeys, DEFRA 20070622.2018
Avian influenza (104): Russia (Siberia), wild ducks 20070620.1983
Avian influenza (38): UK-Hungary virus sequence 20070221.0643
Avian influenza (19): Hungary, Russia (Krasnodar) 20070129.0384
2005
---
Avian influenza - Eurasia (44): Europe 20051031.3181
....................arn/mj
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