Chickens not behind H5N1 outbreaks in Asia

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ROME ― Ducks, people and rice paddies ― not chickens ― are the factors leading to outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Thailand and Viet Nam, and are probably behind outbreak persistence in other countries of the region such as Cambodia and Lao PDR.
"Mapping H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza risk in Southeast Asia: ducks, rice and people" was recently published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. In the report a group of experts from the Foreign Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and associated research centers looked at the series of waves of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza in Thailand and Viet Nam between early 2004 and late 2005.
Initiated and coordinated by F.A.O. senior veterinary officer Jan Slingenbergh, the researchers applied a modeling technique to establish how different factors contributed to the spread of the virus, including the numbers of ducks, geese and chickens, human population size, rice cultivation and local geography. The numbers of ducks and people, and the extent of rice cultivation emerged as the most significant factors, even though the two countries had fought outbreaks in two different ways.
The paper noted that there is a strong link between duck grazing patterns and rice cropping intensity. Ducks feed mainly on leftover rice grains in harvested paddy fields, so free-ranging ducks in both countries move to many different sites in line with rice harvest patterns,
"We now know much better where and when to expect H5N1 flare-ups, and this helps to target prevention and control. In addition, with virus persistence becoming increasingly confined to areas with intensive rice-duck agriculture in eastern and southeastern Asia, evolution of the H5N1 virus may become easier to predict," said Mr. Slingenbergh.
Interventions based on knowledge of hotspots and local rice-duck calendars is called for, in order to target disease control and replace indiscriminate mass vaccination, according to Mr. Slingenbergh.
 

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And more bird flu

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Indo-Asian News Service

March 26, 2008 Wednesday 1:13 PM EST
305 words
Bengal bird flu: culling to be completed WednesdayReport from Indo-Asian News Service brought to you by HT Syndication.
Kolkata

Kolkata, March 26 -- Officials in West Bengal were Wednesday set to complete culling operations in Malda district where the bird flu virus resurfaced two weeks ago.
"We have completed the culling operation at English Bazaar area in Malda where the bird flu had resurfaced at a state-run poultry farm. We have begun a mopping up drive in some notified areas to slaughter the remaining chickens stocked at different poultry farms," said deputy director of the West Bengal Animal Resource Department (ARD) N.K Shit.
He said the mop-up would be completed by Wednesday as most of the work had already been done in the past week.
"We have decided to take police help if anyone refuses to hand over their chickens to our ARD teams. The operation would be carried out in all 24 mouzas (small rural areas) including the Malda municipal area.
"We have already culled about 24,000 poultry birds in Malda. Though the target was to kill about 44,000 chickens initially, we saw the actual figure was about 24,000 as we started working in the field."
He said the target of culling about 44,000 chickens was set according to the 17th All India Livestock Census in 2003 but in reality the figure was much lower.
The bird flu virus resurfaced at a state-run poultry farm at English Bazaar in Malda district two weeks ago. About 200 chickens had died at the poultry farm since March 13.
India's worst ever bird flu outbreak was announced in West Bengal Jan 15. It hit some areas in Murshidabad and Malda district after a month's gap and the culling of nearly four million birds.
The bird flu affected districts were South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Burdwan, Bankura, Malda, Cooch Behar, Purulia and West Midnapore.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from Indo-Asian News Service.
March 26, 2008
 
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