Massacre of Wild Birds no solution to Bird-Flu – Avian Flu Task Force Summit.

Massacre of Wild Birds no solution to Bird-Flu – Avian Flu Task Force Summit

It apparently took more than 30 experts, from 19 countries, to come to the conclusion, that culls of wild birds are not an answer to the outbreaks of avian flu.

You would think that the above was obvious to every one, considering that:

1. It is not practical, or even possible to “cull” the entire population of wild birds suspected of carrying the H5N1 virus.

2. Since the H5N1 virus has also been found in all kinds of mammals (in Rats, Pigs, Goats and even Tigers!) the concept of culling-our-way-out of the bird-flu problem is deeply flawed.  

So it came to pass, that during a “Summit” (I love these Bird-Flu summits, popping up every where now!) held this week in Aviemore, by the Avian Flu Task Force under the UN international convention on migratory species, expert scientists from 19 countries, condemned culls of wild birds as a way of tackling outbreaks of avian flu.

The scientists said, that while wild birds have been infected in some cases, domestic birds, the poultry industry and the trade in live and dead poultry hold the key roles in limiting any spread of the disease in future.

The scientists reminded us all, that indiscriminate culling of wild birds is contrary to the recommendations of many international organisations and intergovernmental conservation treaties.

They warned that the attempts to eliminate avian flu in wild bird populations through culls, may exacerbate the problem by causing further dispersion of infected birds.

Here is a link to the above news item in The Scotsman:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1022282007
 

“H5N1 avian influenza virus will continue to spread” United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today said H5N1 avian influenza virus is entrenched in some places and will continue to spread, despite improved control efforts.

As if to underscore the message, new poultry outbreaks were reported today in the Czech Republic and Bangladesh, and more wild birds were reported infected in Germany.

Joseph Domenech, the FAO’s chief veterinary officer, said the response to the virus has improved significantly over the past 3 years, but it remains entrenched in several countries and will continue to spread, according to an FAO news release.

Domenech spoke at a press conference in Rome on the first day of the Technical Meeting on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Human H5N1 Infection, which continues through Jun 29. The meeting was organized by the FAO and several other international agencies.

He said that except in Egypt and Indonesia, human H5N1 cases have been very sporadic. “This achievement is the most important demonstration of the effects of worldwide efforts to contain the H5N1 virus,” he said.

In the approximately 15 countries in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East where the virus has cropped up in the past 6 months, it was rapidly detected and eliminated or controlled, Domenech said.

“Most countries have been very open about new outbreaks,” he said. “They are better prepared today and have improved their response systems.”

But Domenech cited the recent H5N1 outbreaks in birds in Bangladesh, Ghana, Togo, the Czech Republic, and Germany as illustrations of the need to shun complacency. The threat of a human flu pandemic can’t be ruled out as long as the disease persists in poultry, he said.

He said containment and eradication of the virus will demand a long-term financial and political commitment, especially in the face of the “high risk poultry production and marketing practices that still continue in many countries.” For example, Indonesia has more than 13,000 live poultry markets where birds from different places are brought together.

Domenech also called for increased monitoring of the virus, especially in countries that vaccinate poultry.

“The H5N1 virus is not stable and keeps constantly changing. On one occasion in China last year a new virus strain appeared with different immunologic characteristics which made it necessary to modify vaccines used in the region concerned,” he said. “This emergence of a new strain may have happened again more recently in Indonesia.”

Here is the link to the full article by CIDRAP:

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/jun2707fao.html

Another Child in Java Indonesia is hospitalized with bird flu-like symptoms.

ANTARA is reporting that a nine-year-old child in Tulungagung, East Java, is suspected of having been infected with the bird flu virus.

The child, identified by its initials “EN” from Bungur, Karangrejo, is currently being treated at a local state hospital. The hospital`s spokesman, Triwidyono Agus Basuki, said here on Friday the child`s conditon was worsening.

“We cannot as yet tell if the symptoms shown by the patient are really of birdflu because we have just sent samples of its blood to Surabaya for examination,” he said.

He said EN was admitted to the hospital on Thursday night with symptoms associated with bird flu.

Here is a link to the ANTARA news item:

http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/6/29/child-in-tulungagung-hospitalized-with-bird-flu-like-symptoms/

Get Ready for a Bird-Flu outbreak “or it may be too late” says the Irish Agriculture Minister.

The Irish Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan warned today, that Ireland must be in state of readiness for a potential outbreak of bird flu here, after reports of incidences of the H5N1 strain of the virus in both Germany and the Czech Republic in recent days.

“Ireland must be in a state of high alert” she said, adding that a number of immediate steps must be taken by the Government to reassure the public that everything possible is being done to prepare for the arrival of avian flu.

The Irish Agriculture Minister reminded us that “..this virus respects no borders and the need for extreme vigilance and all measures necessary to prevent its spread to Ireland is the immediate priority. This must include increased surveillance at ports and airports”.”We must carry out an immediate emergency simulation of how the country will deal with the arrival of bird flu. We should establish a biosecurity unit without further delay so that we can handle and contain the virus when and if it arrives.” said the Minister. 

She suggested that an overall figurehead should be appointed immediately to co-ordinate the national response to the threat.

Minister Coughlan added a chilling note to her speech by saying:

“If the Government procrastinates, it may be too late. By that time the virus will have made the short journey to Ireland and we will be in the midst of a national crisis.” 

http://www.labour.ie/press/listing/1183109717748547.html

Vietnam spending Millions of Dollars for Bird-Flu-free status.

Vietnam was one of the first countries to be infested with the Bird-Flu virus. There were 3 human Bird-Flu fatalities Back in 2003, followed by 20 deaths in 2004 and 19 deaths resulting from the H5N1 virus in 2005.

During the entire 2006 however, there were no human fatalities, even though there were at least 4 cases of human infection of the virus.

Vietnam was praised around the world for its apparent victory over the H5N1 virus and was held out as a model for other countries in the region to follow.

The year 2007 brought the Bird-Flu back in Vietnam with one human fatality and a growing number of the cases of human infection.

The country is fighting hard to contain the virus and has spent 125 billion VND (US$7.8 million) this year on vaccines against bird flu, according to Bui Quang Anh, Head of the Veterinary Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The MARD has also warned provinces of the high risk of outbreaks in July, especially around the Mekong delta.

MARD Deputy Minister Bui Ba Bong urged relevant agencies to focus on water fowl and work on immediate plans to vaccinate newly-hatched ducks in a bid to tighten control over the spread of infection.

It is surprising therefore that after going through all of the above, the Vietnamese Authorities are still trying to declare some of it’s provinces Bird-Flu-Free, simply because there have not been any further infections for a few weeks!

You would think that the powers-that-be in Vietnam, one of the first Bird-Flu infested countries in the world, would know better. 

Here is a news item related to the above from Bernama:

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=270034

The new Four “Horsemen” of the Apocalypse.

Here is a cool pic of the new Four “Horsemen” of the Apocalypse.

Credit for the above to Tim, Hiroaki & Masami – members of the Bird-Flu (punk/pop/ska/rock) band, based in Nagoya, Japan

A new Bird-Flu victim in Bird-Flu-Free Vietnam?

A man from Bac Lieu province has been hospitalized with symptoms of bird flu after cooking and eating a duck which had died allegedly of bird flu.  

The 40-year-old man, who is now in the Tropical Disease Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, has been suffering from severe respiratory problems in the last few days.

He works for a farmer named Tran Van Thong who raises 350 ducklings, some of which died recently.

The province’s animal health authorities said three flocks of ducks in Bac Lieu’s Hong Dan district had died in the last few days with bird flu symptoms.They had been raised in the neighboring Soc Trang province. The man and the dead ducks are being tested for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

This is at a time when the authourities in Vietnam are trying to declare as many of the provinces of Vietnam Bird-Flu-Free as they can!

Four provinces in Vietnam (Outbreaks hit poultry in 16 provinces) have reported no new outbreaks for over three weeks and are thus considered free of the disease.

It is suggested by some that the panic to declare the country “Partially” Bird-Flu-Free is due to the commercial pressures from the Tuorism and the Poultry Export Iindustries.

In fact, the Head of the Vietnam’s Veterinary Department, of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Bui Quang Anh, has warned of the possibility of bird flu reoccurring in H5N1 virus-free localities.

At the conference of the National Steering Committee for Bird Flu Prevention and Control on June 26, Anh said the spread of the disease is in a tenuous situation in some localities such as Hai Phong city, and Bac Giang and Thai Binh northern provinces.

“The very concept of any country (let alone a country right in the middle of the most effected Bird-Flu region in the world) declaring itself free from any infection of the H5N1 virus is ludecrous” say the critics of this policy.

“How can the athourities know that there is NO infection in the wild population of the birds and even mammels such as cats, pigs, dogs and more?” they ask.

Here are the source news links for the above post:

http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=29417 

&

http://www.vnagency.com.vn/Home/EN/tabid/119/itemid/201669/Default.aspx

Indonesia, the Top Bird-Flu Country!

Indonesia has the dubious title, of the country with the highest number of human cases of the Bird-Flu infections and deaths to date.

Extreme poverty, the tradition of keeping live poultry inside the tiny crowded dwellings, along with the “Halal” way of killing the poultry (by making a cut in the throat and letting the blood flow out of the bird) are all said to have played their part, in the on going presence of the virus in the country, with the largest Muslim population in the world.

It is amazing therefore, that with so many of its people suffering from this dreaded virus, the Indonesian Health Minister could be delaying the possible development of a super vaccine, by haggling with the WHO, over the tissue samples of the victims of Bird-Flu in Indonesia!

Siti Fadilah Supari                                      

Indonesian Health Minister

Here is a breakdown of the Bird-Flu infections and deaths in Indonesia, by its provinces:

Province        Infections     Deaths

West Java         29               23

Jakarta              25               22

Banten              12               10

Central Java        9                 8

North Sumatra     8                7

East Java            7                5

Riau                    3                2

West Sumatra      3                1

Lampung              3                0

South Sulawesi     1                1

South Sumatra      1                1

Source: WHO

Lethal Strain of Bird-Flu confirmed in Bavarian Water Birds

At least three water birds found dead in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg were infected with a strain of bird flu that can be lethal to humans.

A spokeswoman for Germany’s Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Consumer Protection said a total of three birds had tested positive for the worst strain of the H5N1 virus.

Veterinary experts at the Friedrich Löffler Institute 

the government’s top veterinary laboratory,on the island of Riems in the north of Germany determined that two swans and a wild duck had contracted the H5N1 bird flu strain.

Tests on the other five animals were continuing. “I expect that these are infected, as well,” said Karin Koester, spokeswoman for the office of veterinary medicine in Bavaria.

In the meantime, officials ordered that all poultry farmers in the exclusion zone keep their animals indoors. Pet owners were warned not to let their dogs or cats roam free in the affected area.

The German Authorities have passed this information on to the European Commission.

The European Commission said that a regional laboratory in Bavaria and a German national laboratory had both confirmed the presence of the strain in several dead birds.

Here is a link for the news item re the above story from Reuters:

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-06-24T194423Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-281502-1.xml&archived=False

There is hope for the Indonesian Bird-Flu victim!

The three-year-old girl, who was admitted to the regional hospital in Pekanbaru, on Sumatra island with bird flu symptoms, “has recovered from the potentially deadly illness after swift treatment” according to the doctors treating her.

“Lab results for the girl, Vivi, came up positive on Friday, but she’s now recovering quite well. She had no fever but we are keeping her for observation for another week,” the hospital’s bird flu team leader Azizman Daad told AFP.

Daad said the girl had been treated with Tamiflu as soon as she was admitted to hospital on Tuesday.

All or prayers are with the little girl for her to make a quick and fast recovery.

Here is the link to the news item via France24:

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070623171134.a1zwuabl&cat=null

Now, only disease free birds are allowed to be sold in Hong Kong!!!

Apparently, under the radical new licensing conditions in Hong Kong, only birds free from infectious diseases are allowed to be sold as food.

Read on:

Strict measures are being considered by the Hong Kong authorities to stop the smuggling of birds into Hong Kong from the mainland China.

Speaking at a two-day meeting among Hong Kong, Guangdong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Macau officials to discuss health, animal and plant quarantine and food safety controls, health chief York Chow Yat-ngok said there have been 10 cases of birds dying from the deadly H5N1 virus in the territory so far this year.

Chow said that the customs officials have been taking further steps to deal with bird smuggling as Hong Kong is now facing a bigger threat from avian flu.

To prohibit pet bird traders from selling birds of unknown sources, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department has decided to introduce a number of new licensing conditions.

Thomas Sit Hon-chung, the department’s assistant director (inspection and quarantine), said the new conditions would ensure that all the birds kept on the premises of licensed animal traders were from approved sources.

The birds should either be legally imported to Hong Kong accompanied by valid health certificates or acquired from other licensed animal traders and covered by documentation, such as invoices and sale receipts, detailing the species, quantity, date of transaction and source.

“Under the new licensing rules, traders should keep valid documentations of its source and sale receipts,” Sit said.

“All birds should be transacted through legal channels.”

Under the new licensing conditions, only birds free from infectious diseases are allowed to be sold.

The above is indicative of the culture of trade, as applied under the Chinese laws.

Imagine that a country like China (HK is in fact a little better in this respect than mainland China) has to change it’s laws to stop the sale of diseased birds as food for its people!

A link to the news item from The Standard:

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=47457&sid=14173788&con_type=1

Second Human Fatality in Vietnam

Via VietNamNet Bridge, 21/06/2007

A female patient from Nam Dinh has died as a result of the Bird-Flu H5N1 virus, at the National Institute for Transmitted and Tropical Diseases, said the institutes’s Deputy Director Nguyen Hong Ha.

The patient was hospitalised on June 8 with heavily injured lungs, respiratory failure. After ten days of treatment, the situation didn’t improve due to the virus resisting the medicines.

 

The woman’s health got worse and worse and she died at 6.30am on June 21 after 13 days in the hospital.

 

This is the second type A/H5N1 patient in Vietnam to have died recently, after 17 months with no reported case of bird flu in a human.

 

Here is a Link to the news Item in VietNamNet Bridge:   http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2007/06/708976/

Dangerous Bird-Flu Virus kills Bohemian turkeys.

Turkeys at the farm in Zalsi, east Bohemia, have been killed by the most pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus that is dangerous to man, tests in the National Reference Laboratory in Prague have shown, the State Veterinary Administration said

This is the Czech Republic’s first case in which bred poultry has been infected with bird flu.

The first turkeys started to die on Sunday.

The farm has been closed and all animals will be liquidated. Clean-up and disinfection will follow.

Veterinaries will mark three- and ten-kilometre zones from the incidence site in which strict measures will be applied.

Zalsi farm chairman Frantisek Bartos told journalists today that the turkeys have not been delivered to the retail network yet.

“We would have sold them in one and a half months when they would have weighed 18 kilograms. Now they weigh ten kilograms,” he said.

The first bird flu case in the country was uncovered in March 2006. Since then another 13 cases have been registered, always in swans living in the wild. All of them were infected with H5N1 virus.

Here is the link to Ceskenoviny CZ News:  http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=258674

Fear of Bird-Flu stops Egyptian Kisses!

In the footsteps of a recent Bollywood incident in Mumbai India, there now seems to be a public row about Kissing in Egypt! 

  

The kiss has been a long-standing part of Egyptian culture as a greeting for friends and family.

But a growing number of Egyptian human fatalities resulting from the Bird-Flu, threatens to put a stop to this ancient custom.

Now, a Pediatrician, Dr. Adel Ashour, is warning Egyptians of the dangers of unrestricted kissing.

Dr. Adel Ashour spearheads his anti-kissing campaign from the National Centre for Research.

Launched a year and a half ago, the anti-kissing campaign aims to educate the public on the dangers of freely exchanging kisses. “We started this campaign two winters ago when bird flu was rapidly approaching Egypt.  We were worried about transmission via water droplets in the breath and excessive kissing is an easy way for that to happen.”

Dr. Ashour also emphasized that bird flu was not the only danger. “I count 15 diseases that can be spread by kissing, among them [non-avian] flu, German measles, tuberculosis, mononucleosis and Chicken Pox”

While Dr Azza Abdel Azzim, head of microbiology at Bani Suef University, agreed with the infectious potential of kissing, she suggested that public health resources be directed elsewhere.

 “Yes kissing can transmit many diseases, particularly Epstein-Barr [mononucleosis] and Hepatitis C. Because of this, some people with weak immune system should refrain from kissing.” she said, “But kissing is not at all a significant problem for us right now. We need to make sure that drinking water is clean, for example, first.” she added.

Here is a link to the news item from the Daily Star Egypt: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7796

A new threat from the Bird-Flu virus!

Based on the recent outbreak of the “less virulent form of the Bird-Flu virus” in the UK, it seems that a second strain of avian flu — previously considered of little human risk — does indeed pose a real danger to people.

The H7 influenza strain a lesser-known relative of the H5N1 virus may be emerging as an equally formidable threat, based on what health authorities encountered recently on a handful of tiny chicken farms in Wales and northern England.

“When you have to hospitalize someone for respiratory illness in the U.K., where hospital beds are hard to allocate, then the person has a serious illness,” said Jonathan Nguyen-Van-Tam, a senior lecturer at Public Health Laboratory Services in London.

“In this outbreak, we had four people who tested positive for H7 influenza strain, and three of them were hospitalized,” he told United Press International. “One person was a candidate for intensive care before he finally came around.

“I think we need to reconsider the H7 strain on the basis of this outbreak,” Nguyen-Van-Tam said in reporting how British authorities dealt with the disease encountered on small farms in Wales in the spring of this year.

He presented the report in a special late-breaker session at the Options for the Control of Influenza VI conference in Toronto, attended by more than 1,400 healthcare professionals.

Authorities were alerted to an outbreak there at a smallholding — a small farm often considered to be inefficient for profitable farming — where 30 to 40 hens were kept. The farmer had purchased 10 new hens from a trader at the Chelford Market in England.

When the new hens began dying between May 1 and May 17, health authorities from both countries descended on the farm, testing the sick birds and determining that the birds had H7N2 disease.

Health officials also found illness in the farmer’s wife and the farmer, a neighbor/visitor and her partner. Only the neighbor’s partner tested positive for H7. The partner was not hospitalized but was treated with oseltamivir, sold as Roche’s Tamiflu.

Tracking sales at the live poultry market through primitive sales records, Nguyen-Van-Tam said the health agency was led to another smallholding — so small that the birds were being raised inside the home.

Ducklings purchased around May 7 began getting ill and dying on May 10.

By May 15, the pregnant resident and a male resident were hospitalized with influenza-like illnesses and both later tested positive for H7 disease.

With two such cases on record, authorities tried to find the dealer who sold the sick animals but had problems finding him on his farm on the Llyn Peninsula in Wales. That was because, Nguyen-Van-Tam said, the farmer had been hospitalized for five days with an influenza-like illness. He also tested positive for H7 disease.

Authorities then discovered another outbreak among hens purchased at Chelford May 7 at another smallholding in St. Helens in northwest England.

The surviving birds tested positive for H7. However, the resident who had an influenza-like illness and his 3-year-old grandson who developed a fever both tested negative for H7.

Over the course of the investigation, people who had contacts with the birds or with the patients were treated with oseltamivir.

Eventually that amounted to 369 individuals, 31 of whom had contacts with the birds.

Here is a link to the news item in the Science Daily:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070619-14351400-bc-canada-newbirdflu-analysis.xml

“Only” Four Indonesian Bird-Flu Deaths in the past Three weeks, is “good news for people.”

“Only” Four Indonesian Bird-Flu Deaths in the past Three weeks, is “good news for people.”

Funny how quickly we get accustomed to disaster!

Take the following news item today June 19, 2007 in the Jakarta Post.

Writing for the Jakarta Post on June 19, 2007, Emmy Fitri asks, “Are we missing the forest in the bird flu fight?”

She then goes on to make an amazing statement.

“The bird flu outbreak here seems to have died down, with only four fatalities recorded in the past three weeks. That is, of course, good news for people.”

She says, adding further, “But the health authorities and the National Committee for Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic Influenza Preparedness don’t appear to see it that way. They are still blaming the public for being ignorant of the deadly virus.”

It is a fairly long news item, with some what confusing and at times contradicting views.

My problem is not with the news item but the but with the normalisation of the Bird-Flu in Indonesia to such an extent, that four bird-flu deaths in three weeks are not that bad.

In fact “only” four deaths from the Bird-Flu is “good news for people”!

Imagine if there were four deaths from the Bird-flu in London or New York!

Any way, here is the full news item from Ms. Fitri :

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20070619.F05&irec=4

The Bird-Flu Virus beginning to give up its Secrets!

Amid heightened concern over a possible epidemic of bird flu in humans, scientists in the United States and Taiwan are reporting critical new insights into the architecture of a key enzyme in the H5N1 avian influenza virus that enables the virus to spread. 

Rommie E. Amaro and colleagues focused on what has been termed the “hot pocket,” or more technically “the 150-loop.” This chain of amino acids forms a cavity in the neuraminidase enzyme that facilitates H5N1’s spread. Anti-flu drugs called neuraminidase inhibitors work by entering and binding to the hot pocket, almost like a hand fitting into a glove.

In the new study, researchers report that the hot pocket actually can have internal shapes substantially different than previously believed. That new structural understanding of the 150-loop could be valuable in efforts to design new and more effective anti-flu drugs, they state. Drugs capable of fitting more snugly into the cavity could yield a class of neuraminidase inhibitors that are more effective against H5N1-like flu viruses.

The report is scheduled for the June 20 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The title of the article is “Remarkable Loop Flexibility in Avian Influenza N1 and Its Implications for Antiviral Drug Design.”

Here is a link to the original news item : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070618130937.htm

Vietnam Bird-Flu victim Raised Fighting Cocks and Ducks!

The Deputy Health Minister of Vietnam, Trinh Quan Huan has confirmed that a 20 year old Vietnamese man, died of the Bird-Flu, bringing the death toll to 43.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung 

“Tests confirmed a 20-year-old man from northern Ha Tay province died from the H5N1 bird flu virus a week ago,” the Vietnam News Agency quoted Vice Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan as saying Saturday at a bird flu meeting in Hanoi.

He died of the H5N1 strain of influenza type A at the Ha Noi-based National Contagious and Tropical Diseases Hospital on June 10.

The man got ill on 2nd June, and after being admitted to the hospital, died on 10th June. The news agency also said that the vicinity has been disinfected and cleared of all possible signs of bird flu virus.

Further to our recent post in this blog, Fighting cocks, the source of Malaysian Bird-Flu? it appears that the victim was in close contact with Fighting Cocks!

“The reports revealed that the man’s family reared about two dozen fighting cocks along with ducks. However, the television report did not say how the victim got the H5N1 infection.”

Vietnam was hailed as the best region where the measures were strict and 100% safe, leading the international health experts say that the country is like a role model in keeping the H5N1 virus at bay.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently blamed the surge on unvaccinated ducks grazing in newly harvested rice paddies after Vietnam lifted in March a ban on waterfowl hatching.

Experts warn that ducks can be “silent carriers” of bird flu, spreading the virus through their feces as they roam across rice fields and ponds while seldom showing symptoms of illness themselves.

“This is not going to go away,” said WHO’s Vietnam communications officer Dida Connor, speaking before news of the human death. “There is a sense of complacency which is potentially catastrophic if it was to increase.”

We hope that the Malaysian Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek will take note of that remark from the WHO, before going ahead with his decision to declare Malaysia “Bird-Flu-Free”. 

 Here is a link to the article in Thanh Nien, one of the most prestigious and influential newspapers in Vietnam:http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=29123 

First Bird-Flu Death in Vietnam since 2005!

HANOI, June 16.

Reuters is reporting that the Bird flu has killed one patient in Vietnam, the first death in the country since 2005, state-run television quoted a government report on Saturday as saying.

The death brought the total death toll from bird flu in Vietnam to 43.

The patient died last week in the northern province of Ha Tay, the television cited the Health Ministry report as saying. It gave no details of the gender of the deceased or how the patient became infected.

Of Bird-Flu-Free Malaysia & TB-Free Andrew Speaker!

With no new cases for the last two days, Malaysia has ceased the operations to detect and cull fowls in the infected area.

What is more, Malaysia will apply to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare that it is free from the H5N1 virus.

A news item from BERNAMA says that the Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said that with no new cases reported in the past two days, his ministry has now ceased operations to detect and cull fowls in Kampung Paya Jaras Hilir, Sungai Buloh where the H5N1 virus was discovered following a report that 67 chickens there died over three days from June 2.

“We will have to apply to WHO to declare we are free of the H5N1virus.

We can say that we are free but WHO has to be convinced,” he told reporters after launching the Malaysian Dental Association(MDA)/World Dental Federation(FDI) Scientific Convention and its 64th annual general meeting here today.

Now why would Malaysia need to do such a thing?  

The following excerpt from a news item in the Star is a possible reason:

“The Selangor tourism sector is doing well despite the bird flu outbreak scare in the state, Selangor Tourism, Health and Consumer Affair committee chairman Datuk Dr Lim Thuang Seng said.” He added that “Selangor is a safe place for visitors,”. 

It was reported early last month that bird flu virus had been found in Kampung Paya Jaras Hilir near Sungai Buloh in Selangor after 60 poultry died over three days. 

The Bird-Flu infected countries repeatedly bow to the commercial pressure from the tourism and other related industries to try and get a Bird-Flu-Free status as soon as possible.

To move to be Bird-Flu-Free after only two days without further infections is a new record in irresponsibility though!

We believe that there is very little difference in such attitude from a Bird-Flu infected Nation, to that of Andrew Speaker, the globe-trotting tuberculosis patient.

Here are the links to the news items from BERNAMA  http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=267608

and from the Malaysia Star http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/15/nation/20070615150053&sec=nation

Bird-Flu Back in Burma!

Burma Reports New Bird Flu Outbreak

A report from The Associated Press,  dated June 13, 2007  via “The Irrawaddy”, tells us that Burma has detected the H5N1 bird flu virus among chickens o­n a private farm, an official said Wednesday, marking country’s first outbreak of the deadly virus since April.

Than Hla, an official at the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department, said the virus was detected in a small farm in Pegu, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Rangoon, early this month.

“About 28 chickens died at a private poultry farm in the outskirts of Bago [Pegu] starting June 3,” said Than Hla, adding that laboratory tests confirmed o­n June 7 that some of chickens were infected with H5N1.

About 1,000 birds from the farm have been killed as a precaution, he said. He did not specify the number of birds that tested positive for the disease.

Here is a link to the full article: http://www.irrawaddy.org/service.php?page=1

Bird-Flu Human Cases Map from WHO as of May31st – already out of date!

The latest Bird Flu map from the WHO (dated May31st 2007) is out of date already.

There are new cases of the Bird-Flu popping up almost every other day!

(Mutated?) Bird-Flu Hiding in Healthy Indonesian Chickens!

According to a report by Reuters, filed today from JAKARTA :

“Indonesia has found traces of H5N1 bird flu in apparently healthy-looking poultry, making it tougher to detect the disease in the country hardest hit by the virus, officials said on Monday.”

“…..there is a trend that chicken or poultry are infected by the virus but they don’t die. So, the H5N1 virus is not fatal to poultry,” Musny Suatmodjo, director of animal health at the agriculture ministry, told a news conference.

“Sick or dead chickens are used as a sign of H5N1 infection, but the appearance of “asymptomatic” chickens means humans could become more easily infected with bird flu.”

This could be a serious development in the H5N1 saga and raises two very urgent and important questions:

                                                                                              

  

1. Has the H5N1 mutated to a form that can remain in Poultry without killing the host?

2. Without the hitherto clearly visible symptoms of the poultry infected with the H5N1 virus, how would it be possible to find (and avoid human contact with) the infected poultry?

Fighting cocks, the source of Malaysian Bird-Flu?

There is suspicion in the Malaysia, that fighting cockerels brought in from neighbouring countries could have caused the recent cases of bird flu. 

This is because Kampung Paya Jaras Hilir, the village where 67 avian flu-infected chickens were found dead, is a transit point for fighting cockerels.

Villagers said the birds were being sold or rented out for cock-fighting competitions organised by Indonesian and Cambodians with permanent resident status staying in the area.

Village Security and Development Committee chairman Safiee Lisut said more than 600 fighting cocks have been culled by the Veterinary Services Department.

He said there were still some fighting cocks in the village and added that the authorities were looking for them.
“The fighting cocks fetch a good price, up to RM150 per bird,” he added.

The department’s director-general Datuk Dr Abd Aziz Jamaluddin did not discount the possibility that the virus could have spread from fighting cocks brought in from other countries.

“We do not have conclusive evidence yet as investigations are going on,” he said, adding that the results would be disclosed next week.

Bernama said the government could be asked to ban the import and rearing of fighting cocks to help prevent the spread of avian influenza or bird flu.

The news agency quoted Dr Abd Aziz as saying that the department would push for a cabinet directive to ban fighting cocks if it found evidence that the bird flu cases in Paya Jaras originated from these birds.

As of yesterday morning, another 643 poultry were destroyed by the department.
Here is the full article from The New Straits Times, the oldest English-language newspaper in the region:

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/corpabout.htm 

Bird-Flu – Mass Killers of Birds needed, in a “final Solution” for the infected Poultry!

The Bird-Flu experts are scratching their collective heads about a difficult problem.

Under the government rules, flocks infected with the Bird-Flu virus are put to death as quickly as possible. That’s because if the disease spreads, it imperils both farms and foods they raise, not to mention the fact that some strains of the virus can also kill people.

An earlier cousin of today’s bird flu strains killed perhaps 40 million people around the world during the 1918-1919 pandemic of Spanish flu.

More than 23 million fowl have been exterminated in U.S. outbreaks since the early 1980s.

The industry prefers the term “depopulate,” but no euphemism softens the raw reality of putting down birds by the tens of thousands. This may be done by electrocuting, gassing or chopping under international standards.

Yet, in a virulent outbreak, even these may be too slow and spare too many.

 So representatives of industry, academia and government have been looking for another way.

For three years, they’ve investigated the fastest, cheapest and, they say, most humane way to dispatch birds en masse. After debating and field-testing, they say they’ve found an answer in an unlikely place.

The new poultry-killing instrument of choice is foam.

These soapy air bubbles, adapted from what firefighters use to smother blazes, can smother birds within several minutes, with minimal contact between workers and infection. Supporters say this method saves precious hours and costly labor.

The problem is that some consider it less humane than gassing. Carbon dioxide at least knocks birds unconscious before it poisons them, say its advocates.

Foam simply fills their windpipes and strangles them. “You might as well drop them in a bucket of water,” fumes Dr. Mohan Raj, a British veterinarian at the University of Bristol who specializes in animal welfare during disease control.

So what we really need are Mass Killers of Birds needed, for the final Solution of the infected Poultry!

Please do read this amazing news item, via Philly.com, by JEFF DONN writing for The Associated Press: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/7919106.html

“Another Egyptian Bird-Flu Victim in very-critical-condition” WHO.

A report today, Friday, from Reuters says that according to a World Health Organisation official,  a 10-year-old girl from southern Egypt has been infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, and is in “very critical” condition.

“There is a new human case just reported by the Ministry of Health. She is a 10-year-old female. She has a history of contact with backyard birds,” said John Jabbour, an official with the World Health Organisation in Cairo.

The fresh infection brought the number of human cases of avian influenza in Egypt to 35, of which 14 have died. Egypt’s state news agency MENA reported that the girl, from the southern town of Qena, was in hospital on a respirator.

Bird-Flu travels 70 Miles from Wales to a farm near St Helens, Lancashire in England!

Now that the Bird-Flu outbreak in Wales is over, I thought that the Brits were Bird-Flu free.

Apparently not.

The “Mild” low pathogenic form of Bird-Flu (H7N2) virus is still in the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

It just moved up from Wales in to the Lancashire county of England.

Here is a news item regarding this latest outbreak from The Farmers Weekly Interactive:

http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2007/06/08/104299/low-pathogenic-avian-flu-found-in-lancashire.html