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Published Date: 2008-12-18 20:00:40
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Avian influenza (122): Cambodia, China, India, Taiwan (susp)
Archive Number: 20081218.3992

AVIAN INFLUENZA (122): CAMBODIA, CHINA, INDIA, TAIWAN (SUSPECTED)
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In this update:
[1] Cambodia
[2] China, Jiangsu
[3] HK: Vaccine efficacy debated
[4] India, West Bengal
[5] Taiwan, H5N2 suspected

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[1] Cambodia
Date: Wed 17 Dec 2008
Source: AP via Taiwan News [edited]
<http://khmernz.blogspot.com/2008/12/cambodia-kills-320-fowl-after-bird-flu.html>

Cambodia kills 320 fowl after bird flu outbreak
-----------------------------------------------
Cambodian authorities killed some 320 ducks and chickens Wednesday
[17 Dec 2008] southeast of the capital where a man last week became
the country's 8th human case of the disease. The Agriculture Ministry
sent 30 veterinarians to kill the fowl after laboratory tests Tuesday
[16 Dec 2008] showed that 3 ducks and one chicken had contracted the
deadly H5N1 virus in the village where a man fell sick, said Kao
Phal, the ministry's director of animal health and food production.

A 19-year-old man in Kandal province, 18 miles (30 kilometers)
southeast of Phnom Penh, tested positive for bird flu last Thursday
[11 Dec 2008]. The man fell ill after touching a dead chicken, said
Ly Sovann, a health ministry expert on bird flu. The man remained
hospitalized in the capital. The 7 previous Cambodian victims of the
disease died.

"His health is getting better day by day, but we need him to remain
in the hospital for monitoring," Ly Sovann said.

Bird flu remains hard for people to catch, but health experts worry
the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among humans,
sparking a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been linked to
direct contact with infected birds. At least 246 people have died
worldwide from the virus since 2003, according to the World Health
Organization.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Susan Baekeland

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[2] China, Jiangsu
Date: Tue 16 Dec 2008
Source: CIDRAP News [edited]
<http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/dec1608birds-jw.html>

China reports new H5N1 outbreaks
--------------------------------
China's agriculture ministry today [16 Dec 2008] said it has detected
H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks at 2 poultry farms in Jiangsu province
in the eastern part of the country. In a statement posted on its Web
site, the ministry said both sites where the H5N1 virus was found are
in Haian county, in the eastern part of the province, according to a
report today from Agence France-Presse (AFP).

H5N1 is considered endemic in large parts of China. Mainland China
reported its last major outbreak in June 2008 when the virus struck
thousands of ducks in Yashan City in Guangdong province, according to
a previous report.

The ministry's statement on the Jiangsu outbreak said the source of
the virus might be migratory birds, according to the AFP report.
Authorities are culling and vaccinating poultry in the area, have
quarantined the outbreak farms, and have banned the movement of
poultry and poultry products in and out of the area. News of a fresh
outbreak in China comes about a week after officials in Hong Kong
announced an outbreak at a poultry farm in the special administrative
region city of Yuen Long, the special administrative region's 1st
farm-based outbreak since 2003.

In other developments in that region, public health officials in
China, Hong Kong, and Macao today conducted a drill to test their
cross-border avian flu response plan, Xinhua, China's state news
agency, reported. Named "Exercise Great Wall 2008," the test involved
more than 60 public health officials.

The scenario involved a man and his teenage daughter who lived in
Hong Kong but became infected with the H5N1 virus after visiting the
man's wife in mainland China, according to Xinhua. The drill was the
3rd such exercise under a 2005 cooperative public health emergency
agreement between China, Hong Kong, and Macao.

[Byline: Lisa Schnirring]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

******
[3] HK: Vaccine efficacy debated
Date: Wed 17 Dec 2008
Source: China Daily [edited]
<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-12/17/content_7311877.htm>

Farms may not be using 'right vaccines'
---------------------------------------
The re-emergence of bird flu in Asia and Egypt was partly because
poultry farms were not using the right vaccines and that the virus is
mutating, experts said on Tuesday [16 Dec 2008]. Guan Yi, of the
University of Hong Kong and an expert on H5N1 virus, warned that
poultry farms in some parts of the world were using vaccines that did
not provide full protection against the H5N1 and can't keep up with
its mutation process.

"The vaccine (used in Hong Kong) was made to fight an American strain
of the H5N2, and it is very different from the Guangdong strain of
the H5N1 virus here," he said. "When there were no outbreaks, we just
assumed it was protective. Now that there is an outbreak (on a Hong
Kong farm), we assume it is useless," he said.

Since late November [2008], the virus has infected 2 children in
Indonesia, killing one of them. Earlier this week, it killed a
16-year-old girl in Egypt, too. And a youth in Cambodia tested
positive for the virus after eating chicken.

"The virus is definitely mutating," Guan said, warning that
authorities in some areas were using batches of vaccine that may no
longer be effective.

Since 1997, when H5N1 was identified in Hong Kong, scientists have
discovered 10 strains of the virus, which shows the speed and extent
at which it is mutating, though it has not mutated to pass from human
to human. The strain found in Indonesia, for example, is very
different from the H5N1 strain in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"There is a theoretical possibility that the strain being used in the
vaccine is too different from the one circulating," said Albert
Osterhaus, a leading virologist with Erasmus Medical Center in
Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

[The possibility of immunity problems has already been mentioned in
posting, citing York Chow, Hong Kong's secretary for food and health,
who told reporters at a press conference on Wed 10 Dec 2008 that
experts were focusing on 2 lines of investigation: a possible
biosecurity lapse at a local farm and an (investigated) possibility
of "change in the circulating virus, hobbled Hong Kong's poultry vaccine."

Views of experts will be appreciated; see also overviews on H5N1
vaccines in 20050308.0689 and 20050307.0680. - Mod.AS]

******
[4] India, West Bengal
Date: Wed 17 Dec 2008
Source: The Statesman, India [edited]
<http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=236273>

Bird Flu grips new areas in Malda
---------------------------------
Amid slow-going culling efforts, Bird Flu is spreading in Malda.
Hundreds of chickens have died in the Ratua block, about 10 km [6.2
miles] from Satgharia where the virus was 1st detected. The Malda
district magistrate has asked the animal resources development
department to collect blood samples of the dead and ailing birds in
the block. "Fresh bird deaths have been reported from Chandmoni I and
II and Baharal GP in Ratua within 10 km radius from the Bird Flu
affected areas. ARD officials have left for the spot," the DM, Mr
Sridhar Ghosh said.

Meanwhile, culling operations were being hampered due to stray
incidents of resistance from villagers. One member of a culling team
was allegedly assaulted and heckled by villagers at Anandipur late
this evening [17 Dec 2008] following an altercation. The incident
prompted culling team members to demand police protection for the
operations tomorrow.

Though the district administration has targeted to cull at least 16
500 birds in the affected villages, the progress is slow due to the
villagers' resistance. Rapid response team members have been able to
cull about 3000 birds so far. Yesterday, 18 culling teams had been
able to cull only 155 birds till late evening. Today, the district
administration has added 4 more culling teams to complete the
operation quickly. The district magistrate said that at least 12 more
teams would join the exercise tomorrow [18 Dec 2008].

The CMOH, Malda, Dr Srikanta Roy, said isolation wards have been set
up in the district but till evening no avian flu affected human case
was reported.

In Kolkata, state ARD secretary, Mr Dilip Chakraborty denied that
there was any resistance from villagers to the culling operations. He
said the problems yesterday had occurred as the administration could
not arrange for funds to pay the villagers for their birds.

The West Bengal Poultry Forum meanwhile claimed that it is not bird
flu, but a common disease which is afflicting chickens in the state.
Mr Madan Mohan Pramanik, general secretary of the forum, meeting Mr
Dilip Chakraborty, principal secretary, ARD, today at Writers'
Buildings, alleged that some multinational companies were floating
the bird flu theory to create panic and damage the price advantage
poultry farmers of the state enjoy in the market.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[The following epidemiological comments were included in an update on
the West Bengal epizootic, submitted by India to the OIE on 17 Dec 2008:

"Epidemiological investigation is ongoing. Stamping out of all
domestic poultry is being applied in an approximately 3-km-radius
zone around the outbreaks followed by compensation of the owners.
An intensive surveillance campaign has been launched in a
10-km-radius zone including:
- closure of poultry markets and prohibition on sale and
transportation of poultry products in the infected zone;
- disinfection of premises after culling and sealing of premises
where appropriate.
Restocking will be applied in accordance with a specific protocol."

In view of the encountered operational difficulties, as described in
the above newswire, the authorities may have to consider the
effectiveness of the heroic efforts to contain this major epizootic
by the prevailing, conservative stamping out policy, which does not
include vaccination. Besides the rather complex, difficult job of
mass vaccination -- in case decided, the efficacy of the candidate
vaccine should be safeguarded. Certainly an uneasy task imposed upon
India's Veterinary Services. - Mod.AS]

******
[5] Taiwan, H5N2 suspected
Date: Thu 18 Dec 2008
Source: Taiwan News [edited]
<http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=816519&lang=eng_news>

Japan suspends imports of Taiwan poultry for suspected bird flu
---------------------------------------------------------------
Japan announced Wednesday [17 Dec 2008] to suspend imports of Taiwan
poultry on the ground of "suspected H5N2 bird flu virus in Taiwan
being confirmed."

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of
Japan, Taiwan's Council of Agriculture (COA) confirmed the outbreak
of H5N2 virus in Taiwan. Japan has stopped any poultry imports from
Taiwan and asked Taiwan to present detailed information. Sung
Hwa-tsung, director general of Bureau of Animal and Plant Health
Inspection and Quarantine of COA, said they would give explanations
to Japan, hoping the exports to Japan to be resumed as soon as possible.

Japan imported 5128 tons of poultry, 65 tons of products made from
poultry, and 148 tons of eggs from Taiwan last year [2007]. According
to COA estimates, the value of poultry exported to Japan last year
amounted to NTD 600 million [USD 18 432 000]

The H5N2 avian flu broke out in 2004 incurred a loss of NTD 17
million [USD 522 240] than the previous year.

COA Minister Chen Wu-hsiung today [Thu, 18 Dec 2008] said in the
Legislative Yuan that the suspected avian flu incident has caused a
preliminary loss of over NTD 10 million [USD 307 672]. The 2nd
special panel report will come out soon to confirm the existence of
the avian flu, said Chen.

Reacting to media reports that the bird flu broke out on the eve of
major 3 links with China and the cover-up by the COA, Chen said that
the virus was not yet confirmed and that according to existing laws,
public announcement could not be made prior to confirmation. The
avian flu prevention and control special panel is taking a
re-examination on the 1st report and will make an official
announcement when the result comes out, Chen said.

"Import suspension is a standard procedure when Japan encountered
suspected disease problems, but we have asked Taiwan's representative
in Japan to engage in communication with Japanese government," said Chen.

Poultry farmers and businessmen islandwide are asking the COA to
clear up to Japan to help them cut unnecessary losses. They blamed
the media for exposing the news without prior confirmation. "Such
news must have a strong negative impact on poultry industry," said a
chicken farmer in Kaohsiung County.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[The reappearing seasonality of HPAI in avians is demonstrated in
OIE's WAHID Time series analysis. Out of the total 3361 outbreaks,
recorded world-wide between July 2005 and December 2008, 2065 (61
percent) occurred during the months December-March. See the data at:
<http://www.oie.int/wahis/public.php?page=country_disease_time_series&disease_id=15&disease_type=Terrestrial&selected_analysis=tot_new&selected_start_month=7&selected_start_year=2005&selected_end_month=12&selected_end_year=2008>

(insert "single region" and "entire world"). - Mod.AS]

See Also