The Coming Worldwide Bird Flu Plague & God's Protection
At about 12.30AM, Monday morning, 10/10/05, I had this intense dream.
In the dream I saw people panicking and fleeing towards the East Coast of the United States. I was wondering what the people were fleeing from. Then I heard the words "Avian Flu" or something that sounded similar but I am sure it was Avian Flu. I saw soldiers mercilessly shooting people who were slow to flee. As I looked at the soldiers the word "Nazi" came to my mind. I then saw this Polynesian family who were slow to flee. The parents had decided since they couldn't make it they might as well hide under the the big septic tank beside their home. Little did the family know that a soldier had spotted them. Somehow I knew what soldier was thinking - he was thinking of blowing up the whole septic tank along with the family.
As the chaos spread, I started praying and said something like this: "Lord what do you want me to do?" Immediately, my body had this bright, orange glow. I saw a few other people who had the same orange glow on them. Like the others, I could clearly hear the voice of the Lord directing me on who to minister to. We were translated from place to place only at the Lord's direction. I remember telling a group of people what was happening and leading them to the Lord. I then was directed to go to someone whose name was Urn. This Urn had shared a prophecy which I was interested in. I then woke up at about 1:00 AM thinking it was for real.
Note: Prophet Tom Deckard, has prophesied and warned that the bird flu virus (aka. "Avian Flu") would soon mutate and jump from person to person either by direct/indirect contact or via airborne and thus killing millions worldwide. Read his recent warnings on the bird flu titled, A Great Plague is coming to the World - How to be Protected, Scientific Warnings Of Coming Plague and Flu Plague Preparation.
God bless.
RMC.
 |
Bird Flu/ Avian Flu - Recent News Clippings |
|
India conducts night raids to contain bird flu
Reuters - March 11, 2008
By Bappa Majumdar
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Authorities in India's east battling to contain a fresh outbreak of bird flu said they were raiding farms at night to catch chickens and ducks and counter unwilling villagers who have refused to hand over poultry.
Only a month after authorities in West Bengal declared that bird flu was under control, a fresh outbreak was reported from the state's Murshidabad district, where 900 backyard poultry died over the last two weeks.
Some villagers have also let their poultry loose during the day and hide them inside their homes at night, Subir Bhadra, a senior district official said from Murshidabad.
"These are problems we are facing and therefore we have decided to surprise the villagers by conducting night-time raids," Bhadra said by telephone.
"It is working, although villagers are superstitious and seem closely attached to their poultry, which also puts them at a health risk."
There have been no reported human cases of bird flu. Experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person, leading to a pandemic that could kill millions worldwide.
During the earlier outbreak in January, the H5N1 virus hit 13 of the state's 19 districts, including Murshidabad, bringing down poultry sales by more than 70 percent in the state, but it had a limited impact in rest of the country.
They had then culled close to 4 million birds in the state after the World Health Organisation (WHO) described January's outbreak as the worst-ever in India.
Officials say smuggled poultry from bird-flu hit Bangladesh could have triggered the latest outbreak.
Bird flu spread to another district in Bangladesh last week, affecting 47 out of 64 districts in the country.
On the bordering villages of Murshidabad, over 350 veterinary workers, accompanied by policemen, were visiting farms trying to convince villagers to hand over chickens.
"I have asked the police not to use force, but we hope they at least agree to cooperate," Bhadra said.
Previous containment efforts in West Bengal were also hampered when villagers refused to hand over their chickens, saying they were disease-free.
Villagers have dumped dead poultry in wells and ponds, and many have even eaten undercooked dead chickens, officials said.
Officials said they were still collecting samples from other districts to see if bird flu was spreading to new areas.
"We are not taking any chances now," Anisur Rahaman, the state's animal resources minister said from the state capital, Kolkata.
(Editing by Alistair Scrutton)
Culling of 50,000 poultry begins in West Bengal
Sify Correspondent
Monday, 10 March , 2008, 11:08
Kolkata: West Bengal on Monday resumed culling operation to slaughter about 50,000 poultry birds in Murshidabad district where the deadly H5N1 virus resurfaced after nearly a month the government claimed avian flu was contained in the state.
A fresh outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed in two areas of Murshidabad district Friday, about 300 km from here, almost a month after the state culled nearly four million birds to combat India's worst outbreak of the avian flu.
"We have started culling operation in the morning. Around 65 teams, each comprising three to four personnel, have left for the two affected areas to cull around 50,000 poultry birds," Murshidabad district magistrate Subir Bhadra said on Monday.
West Bengal Animal Resource Minister Anisur Rahman said a detailed map of the affected area was being prepared to ensure a foolproof culling operation.
Tests in Bhopal's High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) has confirmed bird flu (the deadly H5N1 strain) at Nayamukundapur in Raghunathgunj Block II and Dohapara village in Murshidabad-Jiagunj block of the district.
The two areas witnessed death of nearly a 1000 birds in the past 10 days.
Rahman earlier said that the new cases might be owing to the fact that villagers had hidden ducks and chickens during the previous culling operation.
"The virus could have been transmitted though smuggling of poultry birds from bordering Bangladesh, which is hit by avian flu," he added.
"The areas from where the reports came are not new areas," he said.
According to Rahman, about four million birds were culled till mid-February since the bird flu outbreak was confirmed on January 15.
The authorities in Murshidabad on Sunday blared through loudspeakers a warning to the villagers to stay away from backyard poultry and cooperate with culling teams.
In early February, authorities hoped that the worst bird flu crisis ever was over. The ban on sale and consumption of poultry products was also lifted from 13 of the 19 West Bengal districts where the bird flu raged.
The state government had then allayed fears of human infection, after the blood samples of the 19 people sent for testing were negative.
Minister forecasts massive bird flu outbreak in May
Thanh Nien News
Published: 06 March, 2008
Bird flu epidemic may break out in many provinces nationwide this May, an animal health official warned at a Tuesday meeting in Hanoi.
Head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Animal Health Department Bui Quang Anh said the deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu virus still persisted in many provinces nationwide.
Lax control over trade and transportation of poultry in many provinces threatens to spark bird flu recurrence.
The risks will increase as the weather gets warmer due to resumption of fowl farming. The bird flu epidemic has hit 10 provinces so far this year, half of which are northern provinces of Quang Ninh, Ninh Binh, Phu Tho, Ha Nam, and Thai Nguyen. Southern provinces affected include Tra Vinh, Long An and Vinh Long, along with the two central provinces of Quang Binh and Quang Nam. H5N1 has killed four people in Vietnam this year, bringing the total number of deaths caused by the virus to 51 in the country since 2003.
Bird Flu Virus has Mutated into Form That's Deadly to Humans
by David Gutierrez
NaturalNews.com
March 6 2008
The avian flu has undergone a critical mutation making it easier for the virus to infect humans, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and published in the journal PLoS Pathogens.
"We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans," lead researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka said.
The H5N1 strain of influenza, also known as "bird flu," has decimated wild and domestic bird populations across the world since it emerged between 1999 and 2002. This highly virulent variety of the flu has been identified as a public health concern because in the past, varieties of influenza have mutated and crossed the species barrier to humans.
Since 2003, 329 humans have been confirmed infected with H5N1, with 201 fatalities. The vast majority of these worked closely with infected birds, such as in the poultry industry.
One of the primary things that keeps bird flu from infecting humans is that the virus has evolved to reproduce most effectively in the bodies of birds, which have an average body temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Humans, in contrast, have an average body temperature of 98.6 degrees, with temperatures in the nose and throat even lower (91.4 degrees). This vast temperature difference makes it very difficult for the bird flu virus to survive and grow in the human body.
In the current study, researchers found that a strain of H5N1 has developed a mutation that allows it to thrive in these lower temperatures.
"The viruses that are circulating in Africa and Europe are the ones closest to becoming a human virus," Kawaoka said. But he pointed out that one mutation is not sufficient to turn H5N1 into a major threat to humans.
"Clearly there are more mutations that are needed. We don't know how many mutations are needed for them to become pandemic strains."
"We are rolling the dice with modern poultry farming practices," warned consumer health advocate Mike Adams, author of the book How to Beat the Bird Flu. "By raising chickens in enclosed spaces, treating them with antibiotics, and denying them access to fresh air, clean water and natural sunlight, we are creating optimal conditions for the breeding of highly infectious diseases that can quickly mutate into human pandemics," Adams said. "Given current poultry farming practices, it is only a matter of time before a highly virulent strain crosses the species barrier."
Russian health experts say global bird flu threat is growing
17:59 - 05/ 03/ 2008
RIA Novosti
MOSCOW, March 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russian health officials warned Wednesday that the threat from the deadly bird flu virus is growing as countries are failing to implement effective disease control measures to deal with the crisis.
"The threat is growing as the measures taken, particularly in Indonesia and Egypt, are ineffective and the virus is constantly present in wild birds and circulates in domestic birds...that leads to the development of the virus," said Nikolai Vlasov, the head of Russia's agricultural watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor.
The official however stressed that "Russia has no reason to panic," adding that the country has taken all the necessary measures needed to cope with bird flu.
Although no cases of human-to-human transmission of H5N1 have been reported, scientists fear the virus could mutate into a strain that could pass easily between people, causing a global pandemic.
On a more pessimistic note, the health official said that if a human strain of bird flu emerged in Indonesia, then Russia would have "months to respond."
"If [the mutant virus] surfaces in Russia we will only have a matter of days," Vlasov said.
According to the World Health Organization, avian influenza has so far killed 230 people out of 364 confirmed cases worldwide
Bird flu is back
8:41am Saturday 1st March 2008
By Miriam Phillips
ABBOTSBURY Swannery's hopes of reopening for Easter have been dashed after another bird tested positive for bird flu.
On the final day of the site's bird flu restrictions, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced that a Canada goose collected on February 25 in the wild bird monitoring area tested positive for the lethal H5N1 virus.
The remains of the bird, the 11th to test positive, were found less than a kilometre from where the previous positive cases were collected at the swannery.
The goose was found in the eleventh hour for Abbotsbury Swannery, which was into the last day of its 28-day restriction period following the last sample that was found positive on January 29.
A new control zone will be imposed around the immediate area for 31 days, which means the swannery may not be able to reopen until March 31.
Swannery boss John Houston had been hoping to reopen on March 15 in time for Easter, one of the attraction's busiest times.
The last mute swan to be found with bird flu was confirmed on February 4.
A spokesman for Defra said the latest case was not 'unexpected' but the finding means the new control area will be in place until March 29. He added: "This was the last bird to be tested and in a way it means we are back to the beginning.
"Defra will be holding a meeting later next week to review the monitoring area but at present the original control area will be back in place.
"Defra's enhanced surveillance of wild birds in the area is continuing, including active patrols to look for dead wild birds.
"We are currently considering whether any additional restrictions are necessary in the area."
A Wild Bird Monitoring Area is currently in place around the affected area and poultry keepers in the area are reminded of the need to comply with existing restrictions, including the requirement to house or otherwise keep separate their birds from wild birds.
Defra is asking people to remain vigilant for signs of disease, reporting any suspicions immediately.
The control area means that from Portland Beach Road to Abbotsbury, shooting is banned.
The wild bird control area includes the whole of Weymouth and Portland and stretches from Osmington to West Bexington.
The wild bird monitoring area includes much of South Dorset in a rough arc from Durdle Door in the East, up to Dorchester and West to Burton Bradstock.
Richard Herringshaw, Dorset County Council's principal trading standards officer, said poultry keepers must stick to strict reinforced biosecurity measures.
He added: "I understand the new discovery is a difficult time for poultry keepers in the Abbotsbury and Weymouth areas.
"We are all working together to make sure the situation is contained as far as possible.
"Disinfectant should be available at entrances and exits to premises where birds are kept and people must not leave premises with clothing visibly soiled with mud, animal or bird faeces.
"Vehicles entering or leaving premises must not be visibly soiled with mud, animal or bird faeces and must have wheels and wheel arches disinfected."
Bird flu spreading in South and East Asia
02/26/2008 12:56
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The bird flu has killed more people in China and Vietnam as the virus rapidly spreads across South and East Asia.
In China tests show that Zhang Zhongqin, a migrant worker who died in Haifeng County (Guangdong), was infected with the deadly virus. She raised chicken and fell ill on 16 February after eating meat from a chicken that had died. She is the third official death recorded this year in the mainland.
Despite the death it is still business as usual in local poultry markets and the authorities have not taken any special measures.
They did however confirm another outbreak in poultry in Guizhou, which comes in the wake of a deadly outbreak ten days ago in Zhengan County, where more than 238,000 fowl were culled.
Since December China has reported four outbreaks of the disease in fowl.
In Vietnam a young teacher died yesterday in Phu Tho province.
“We still report bird flu outbreaks among poultry,” said Nguyen Huy Nga, director of the Preventive Medicine Department in Vietnam’s Ministry of Health. “The risk of bird flu infection among people remains very high and we expect more human cases,” he added.
In Pakistan the government reported a new outbreak in fowl in Karachi, the fourth case in a month.
Pakistan also confirmed its first human death from the virus near the north-western town of Abbottabad in December.
In Bangladesh mass culling has not stopped the spread of the virus. The latest area to be hit is the district of Munshiganj.
At present the avian flu affects 44 of the country’s 64 districts.
The poultry sector, which generates more than US$ 1.8 billion annually, has suffered so far US$ 650 million in losses.
In all these countries poultry is an essential component in the domestic economy. But governments have a hard time containing outbreaks, partly because people are not easily persuaded to work with the authorities.
WHO reports Tamiflu-resistant flu in U.S., Canada
Fri Feb 1, 2008 1:44pm EST
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - The main seasonal flu virus in the United States and Canada as well as parts of Europe shows higher resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu, raising questions about its potential effectiveness in a human bird flu pandemic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported the elevated resistance in North America on Friday, but said it was too early to know what the chances may be for increased Tamiflu resistance in the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
It did not change its recommendation that Tamiflu be used to treat human cases of bird flu.
A number of governments have been stockpiling Tamiflu, made by Switzerland's Roche Holding AG and Gilead Sciences Inc of the United States, for use as a first line of defense in case bird flu sparks a human influenza outbreak.
Health experts fear that the virus, which now mainly affects poultry, could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people and trigger a deadly pandemic.
The WHO said it was investigating the extent of resistance worldwide to Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, in some seasonal H1N1 flu viruses that have a mutation making them "highly resistant".
"The frequency of oseltamivir resistance in H1N1 viruses in the current influenza season is unexpected and the reason why a higher percentage of these viruses are resistant is currently unknown," the WHO said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported a five percent prevalence of resistance to Tamiflu in samples of H1N1 virus tested. In Canada, 8 out of 128 samples showed resistance, roughly 6 percent, WHO spokeswoman Gregory Hartl said.
"These preliminary data indicate that oseltamivir resistance in H1N1 viruses is geographically variable but not limited to Europe," the WHO said in a statement.
A preliminary survey issued by the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) this week said that of 148 samples of influenza A virus isolated from 10 European countries during November and December, 19 showed signs of resistance to Tamiflu.
The mutated H1N1 is a sub-type of influenza A.
Of 16 samples from Norway, 12 tested positive for resistance against Tamiflu, according to the ECDC study.
The new "elevated resistance to oseltamivir" appears limited to seasonal H1N1 viruses, and does not involve H3N2 or influenza B viruses which are also circulating, the WHO said.
"This means that oseltamivir would most likely be ineffective for treating or preventing infections caused by these resistant H1N1 strains, although the drug will be effective against other influenza virus infections," it added.
The WHO said it was contacting national health authorities to determine the extent of resistance to the drug. Neither Japan -- where Tamiflu is widely prescribed for seasonal flu -- nor Hong Kong had seen increased resistance to date, it said.
"It is still early in the (seasonal flu) season, we don't have a full picture yet," Hartl said.
Past studies had found Tamiflu resistance rates ranging from zero to 0.5 percent, according to the U.N. agency.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Caroline Drees)
India isolates 26 people as bird flu spreads in Asia
By Bappa Majumdar
Fri Feb 1, 2008 7:16am EST
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - India has put 26 people in isolation with bird flu symptoms and hundreds more people are being monitored, officials said on Friday as Pakistan and Thailand reported outbreaks of bird flu in poultry.
India is battling its worst outbreak of avian influenza, which has spread to 13 of West Bengal's 19 districts. The densely populated state is adjacent to Bangladesh, itself trying to control a major outbreak of bird flu, and has millions of backyard fowl.
India has not reported any human infection of the H5N1 bird flu virus in its four outbreaks of avian influenza since 2006.
"The preliminary tests for bird flu are negative, but more tests are being conducted and the list of sick people reviewed every day," R.S. Shukla, a senior health official, told Reuters.
To the west in neighboring Pakistan, authorities said bird flu had been detected at a poultry farm on the outskirts of its biggest city, Karachi.
But officials said on Friday there was no likelihood of any human infection.
"We are now monitoring the workers on the farm as well as another one adjacent to it," said an official of the Sindh provincial government.
In Thailand, the virus has been found in a second province in the north.
Tests confirmed the outbreak in Phichit, 215 miles north of Bangkok, where about 30 village chickens died last week, Livestock Development Department chief Sakchai Sriboonsue said.
There were four outbreaks in Thailand last year, but no new reports of human infections in the country where H5N1 has killed 17 people since 2003.
In Indonesia, 102 people have died of the disease.
In the latest case, the health ministry said on Friday a woman who had lived near a poultry slaughterhouse on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta died of multiple-organ failure.
The woman, 31, is the seventh person to die of bird flu in Indonesia this year and some experts say the flare-up is caused by a combination of factors such as rainy weather and poor sanitation.
Not including the latest death, bird flu has killed 224 people in a dozen countries since late 2003, the World Health Organisation says.
MEDICAL WORKERS AT RISK
In West Bengal, veterinary staff have culled 2.6 million birds, completing what officials said was a successful operation that had brought the bird flu situation under control.
The focus now is on hundreds of medical and veterinary workers and villagers who had come into close contact with dead or sick birds. Officials said health staff returning home after the culling operation had been asked to get themselves checked.
Dozens of isolation wards had been created in hospitals in the affected districts to handle any sudden rush of suspected human cases.
Experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person, leading to a pandemic, especially in countries such as India where people live in close proximity to backyard poultry.
Health experts also worry about the situation in Bangladesh, a crowded country of 140 million people where bird flu has spread to nearly half of the country's 64 districts.
Livestock officials said bird flu was still spreading and had resurfaced in the Feni district southeast of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. The government has ordered culling of all chickens and ducks in one kilometer radius around affected farms.
The virus is threatening the livelihoods of millions of people reliant on the country's poultry industry and driving up food prices.
"Now we are facing a critical situation, as bird flu struck at a time when commodity prices from rice, flour to milk powder and edible oil had already nearly doubled," said Shahedul Alam, a government employee.
Chicken prices in markets in the capital dropped 25 percent over the past two weeks, while the price of eggs has fallen 20 percent or more.
Bird flu has also meant trouble for parts of India's poultry business.
Egg exports from the world's second largest producer have dropped about 50 percent in the past two weeks, leaving the industry with losses of around $20 million, trade officials said.
(Additional reporting by Ruma Paul in Dhaka, Panarat Thepgumpanat in Bangkok, Faisal Aziz in Karachi and Mita Valina Liem in Jakarta; Writing by David Fogarty; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Bird Flu Pandemic: Will Telecommuting Work on Wall Street?
Wall Street & Technology: Blog
subscribe January 30, 2008
While most large financial institution firms plan to rely on telecommuting in the case of a pandemic - new results of a financial industry drill show that few employees actually did telecommute at all.
In a new in-depth report on last fall's bird flu pandemic drill, regulators suggested that financial organizations should seriously evaluate the potential effectiveness of their telecommuting plans during a pandemic.
Small and medium organizations are more likely to rely on strategies such as staggered shifts and personal space limitations in the case of a pandemic since many employees' job functions require them to be on site, they do not have the necessary IT equipment, and there are security concerns with respect to remote access, they said.
But large organizations plan to heavily rely on telecommuting. Prior to the drill, most of them said they had already excercised their telecommuting capabilities.
But their telecommuting plans turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment: During the height of the pandemic drill, one-third of large organizations reported that only 26-50% of their employees telecommuted.
Further, companies reported that they had previously tested systems used for telecommuting for less than half of their staff.
At the end of the exercise, most participants considered their telecommuting plans only minimally to moderately effective, regulators said.
The 3-week pandemic drill was carried out by the U.S. Treasury, together with SIFMA and the Financial and Banking Information Infrastructure Committee (FBIIC).
2,775 financial firms took part.
India to Cull 2.7 Million Chickens as Bird Flu Outbreak Spreads
By Bibhudatta Pradhan
Jan. 28 (Bloomberg.com) -- India will cull as many as 2.7 million chickens by Jan. 30 to rein in bird flu, as the disease spread to 13 of 19 districts in West Bengal state.
Authorities culled 1.9 million chickens as of yesterday after the outbreak was reported earlier this month in the eastern state, federal Animal Husbandry Secretary Pradeep Kumar said in New Delhi today.
``We're keeping our fingers crossed about containing the disease,'' Kumar said. ``There's a need to convince people about the necessity of culling.''
As many as 125,283 poultry birds died in the state after the outbreak, Kumar said. The decline in the natural mortality of the birds because of avian influenza is a ``good sign,'' he said.
Rainfall in the state had prevented the culling of potentially infected birds, Kumar said. The government will give importance to the ``mopping up and disinfection'' operation once the culling is over, Kumar said.
Bird flu outbreaks in more than a dozen countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East show the virus is spreading among poultry and may still evolve into a human pandemic strain, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization said last week.
The World Health Organization has recorded 352 human H5N1 cases since 2003. Of those, 219 were fatal. The Geneva-based U.N. agency says millions of people could die in case of a pandemic.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at bpradhan@bloomberg.net .
Bird flu spreads to urban areas
30 Jan 2008, The Times of India
KOLKATA: State officials may be patting their backs for completing culling in bird flu affected districts but the dreaded H5N1 virus has struck back by hitting urban areas.
Bird flu was confirmed in new sites on Tuesday evening — Kalyani municipality and Kanchrapara gram panchayat in Nadia, a village in Birbhum's Suri block-I and Howrah's Panchla and Sankrail. Both districts had announced that culling was nearly complete and the new outbreak has come as a shock.
In Kolkata, the health department had a harrowing time after a member of the culling team in Budge Budge, South 24-Parganas, was admitted to MR Bangur hospital with suspected bird flu. Blood samples of Dipankar Dey were sent for tests to three labs. "All came back negative. He is suffering from an infection of the upper respiratory tract," said Sanchita Bakshi, director health services.
Culling has been ordered in Baduria, North 24-Parganas, after half the stock of poultry died at a farm. The government decided not to wait for the test reports from Bhopal, said animal resources development minister Anisur Rahman. He refuted corruption charges pressed against some culling officials but admitted that the state had lodged a police complaint against staff who left midway through the culling operation in Birbhum without informing their superiors.
In Midnapore town, there was panic after seven goats dropped dead. The owner claimed he had buried the animals but couldn't show the burial place raising fear that the infected meat was sold.
In Nadia, samples sent from Harijanpara, a densely-populated area in Kalyani town, tested positive. "We were nearly through with the culling operation but the virus has spread to Kalyani. We will take similar action there. Culling will be carried out in parts of Chakda block as well," said Nadia DM Omkar Singh Meena.
The bird flu situation came up for discussion at the state cabinet meeting on Tuesday where chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee expressed concern about the source of the virus that affected 13 districts of the state.
Birbhum DM T K Som confirmed that bird flu had been confirmed in Suri's Alumda village. "This area is within five km of Suri town, so we have decided to cull chickens in the municipality area also. The operation will start on Wednesday," Som said. Fresh samples have been sent from Malda's Kaliachak-III block.
Home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said the US Consulate had offered help to tackle the outbreak. "The decision rests with the Centre. A high alert has been issued in the areas along the India-Bangladesh border," Ray said.
Bird Flu Found For First Time in Iran; Boy Dies of Bird Flu in Indonesia
By VOA News
18 January 2008
The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in an outbreak among domestic and wild fowl in Iran for the first time.
The head of Iran's Veterinary Organization has warned against eating fowl from the northern part of the country. Mojtaba Norouzi says his agency has destroyed hundreds of thousands of birds in an effort to prevent the spread of bird flu.
Elsewhere, an eight-year-old Indonesian boy has died from the virus. The death toll from the disease is now 97 in Indonesia, which has suffered more bird flu fatalities than any other country.
Officials in Ukraine say there is an outbreak of the disease on the Crimean peninsula. More than 150 chickens were found dead at a farm in the village of Rivne. Authorities have sealed off the town.
In eastern India, health workers are battling an outbreak of the disease in West Bengal province and have been told to kill 400,000 chickens. Despite the risk of infection, local poultry owners continue to handle and consume the birds.
The World Health Organization says more than 200 people have died from the bird flu virus since its discovery in Asia in 2003. Researchers fear the virus could mutate and become transmittable between humans.
Bangladesh bird flu situation alarming, says science adviser
27 Jan, 2008
The Economic Times - India
DHAKA: The spread of bird flu among poultry has become "alarming" in Bangladesh as three more districts reported outbreaks at the weekend, leaving almost half the nation affected, an official said on Sunday.
More than 10,000 birds were slaughtered in north and south Bangladesh late on Saturday as part of a continued massive cull to contain the deadly H5N1 virus, the senior government science adviser, said.
"On Saturday alone we had culls at 18 farms. And this morning we have already 10 more farms affected with the disease," he said.
Since Bangladesh's first bird flu outbreak in February last year, the disease has been detected in 29 out of the country's 64 districts, prompting authorities to slaughter at least 360,000 birds.
The officials said the situation in the impoverished country of 144 million was so wide in scope that even wild crows had been apparently infected.
"It is an alarming situation. Hundreds of crows are dying every day across the country due to the bird flu. The government should make it an emergency health issue," the adviser said.
"Farmers in some villages are throwing away dead chickens in canals and ponds, spreading the disease without knowing it," he added.
Experts had said earlier this month that the situation was far worse than initial government claims because farmers failed to report many cases.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Thursday Bangladesh needed house-to-house surveillance to fight the spread of bird flu because the situation had worsened and was "posing a danger to public health".
The Bangladesh poultry industry produces about 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks annually, one of the world's largest populations.
Bangladesh is the world's most densely populated country, with nearly 1,000 people per square kilometre.
Experts fear bird flu could mutate and develop into a form that can easily spread from human to human.
Bangladesh bird flu worsening: UN
25 January, 2008
DHAKA (AFP) - Bangladesh needs house-to-house surveillance to fight bird flu because the situation has worsened and is "posing a danger to public health," the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Thursday.
The statement from the UN's FAO came as neighbouring India battled its worst outbreak of bird flu -- believed to have spread from Bangladesh, which has been reporting sporadic outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain since February 2007.
"The situation has worsened in the past week compared to the first few months of the outbreak. The international community is very concerned," FAO's Bangladesh chief Ad Spijkers told AFP in Dhaka.
"We took the concern to the minister Wednesday and donors are going to meet with the government very soon to discuss comprehensive measures to fight the disease. It's posing a danger to public health," he said.
"The government should do active house-to-house surveillance to control the disease," he said.
No human infections have been reported in Bangladesh, but Spijkers' remarks came amid a rise in outbreaks in the country's southern, central and northern districts. The government said more than 20,000 birds were slaughtered in the past week.
Bangladesh border security forces were put on high alert Thursday to stop the transport of poultry from India's West Bengal state, where authorities are struggling to control a massive bird flu outbreak.
Since Bangladesh's first bird flu outbreak, the disease has been detected in 26 out of the country's 64 districts, prompting authorities to slaughter at least 355,000 birds.
Officials said the situation has worsened in the past week but the disease remains contained in the impoverished country of 144 million people.
"We don't think the situation is as bad as in West Bengal," said Salahuddin Khan, livestock department director.
Experts differed, saying the situation was far worse than the government claims, with farmers holding back from reporting many cases.
"Bird flu is now everywhere. Every day we have reports of birds dying in farms," M.M. Khan, leading poultry expert and the treasurer of Bangladesh Poultry Association, said last weekend.
The situation was serious and public health was in danger, Khan said.
"The government is trying to suppress the whole scenario."
Bangladesh has been under emergency rule since January 2007 following months of strikes and rioting by rival supporters of the country's two main political parties. The government has promised to clean up the country's notoriously corrupt political landscape before holding elections in late 2008.
The FAO country chief said the world's most densely-populated nation faced a "delicate situation" since the poultry industry employs five million people.
"It's tough to impose movement control in a small country populated by more than 144 million people. It has become a sensitive and difficult issue as the livelihoods of a lot of people depends on birds," Spijkers said.
The poultry industry here has about 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks.
Experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate and become able to pass between humans.
South, Southeast Asian Countries Battle Bird Flu Outbreaks
By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi, VOA News
24 January 2008
South and Southeast Asian countries are grappling with new outbreaks of bird flu as winter weather sweeps across the region. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, the latest outbreaks are still confined primarily to poultry, but one new human death has been reported in Vietnam.
Health officials in India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam have ordered the culling of millions of chickens as they attempt to control fresh outbreaks of bird flu.
In India, the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has spread rapidly in recent weeks among poultry flocks in the eastern state of West Bengal - a densely populated region of more than 25 million people.
Indian Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar says the culling of affected poultry needs to be speeded up. He says villagers are resisting the culling of birds because there have been delays in granting them compensation.
"Authorities in West Bengal admit they are falling behind in attempts to slaughter the affected birds, and have appealed to other states for assistance," said Pawar.
"There have been no human infections reported yet in India, but health officials in West Bengal fear that ignorance of the disease is increasing the chances of its spread to humans. There are reports of children playing with chickens in affected villages, and dead birds being dumped in ponds. Human beings can catch bird flu by coming into direct contact with infected poultry."
"In Bangladesh, which adjoins West Bengal, the virus has spread to nearly half of the country," said Pawar. "The government has been struggling to contain the disease since last March."
Thailand has reported its first outbreak of bird flu in 10 months in a region north of Bangkok. Officials say more than four thousand chickens have already been slaughtered in the country, which is among those hardest hit by the virus since it reappeared in Asia in 2003," said Pawar. "Vietnam has confirmed that bird flu killed one man in the north of the country, the first human fatality from the disease there this year. Bird flu has previously claimed 47 lives in Vietnam.
"East Asian countries such as Vietnam and China are worried about the increased risk of animal-related diseases during the lunar New Year holiday next month, when travel from one region to another and poultry consumption rise rapidly," Pawar said.
The World Health Organization's spokeswoman in New Delhi, Shima Roy, says the risks in Asia are especially high because poultry is so much a part of daily life.
"All in all it is a worry because we are dealing with very dense populations of animals and humans and their interaction," said Roy. "Poultry is part and parcel of our lives here in Southeast Asia, it is not possible to eliminate it from our lifestyles, so we should be vigilant and practice safe methods of keeping poultry."
The H5N1 virus is mainly an animal disease, but there are fears it could mutate and spread rapidly among humans, sparking a global pandemic. The WHO says more than 200 people have died from bird flu so far, mostly in Asia.
UN Says Bird Flu Remains a Global Threat
By VOA News
24 January 2008
The United Nations is warning that bird flu outbreaks have spread to 15 countries, making the disease a global threat that requires close monitoring.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released a statement Thursday, calling for more monitoring and greater efforts to contain the virus.
The outbreaks have been reported since December and involve mostly domesticated poultry infected with the virulent H5N1 strain.
The FAO's chief veterinarian, Joseph Domenech, says while there has been global progress in containing the bird flu, the crisis is far from over.
He says the outbreaks are especially worrisome in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Egypt, where the virus has spread despite major efforts to control it.
The other nations where bird flu outbreaks have been reported since last month are Benin, Burma, China, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Vietnam.
Some information for this report was provided by Bloomberg.
Ten countries hit by bird flu in January
16/01/2008
MOSCOW, January 16 (RIA Novosti) - Bird flu cases have been registered in ten countries worldwide so far this month, Russia's agricultural watchdog said on Wednesday.
In Dominican Republic, Israel, Benin, Vietnam, China and Myanmar, which have all been hit by outbreaks, "Quarantine has been imposed... the mobility of birds has been restricted, and disinfection and vaccination measures are underway," Rosselkhoznadzor said.
In Israel, bird flu infected 18 chickens at a kindergarten. A bird flu outbreak in northwest China killed nearly 5000 fowl and led to the slaughter of 35,000 last week.
Bird flu cases have also been reported in Portugal, West Bengal, Bangladesh, and the U.K. this month.
On Wednesday, a swan in Dorset, southern England, died of bird flu. Local officials believe the bird, the fourth to die at the Abbotsbury reserve, was infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus, which is lethal to humans.
Although no cases of human-to-human transmission of H5N1 have been reported, scientists fear the virus could mutate into a strain that could pass easily between people, causing a global pandemic.
A total of 216 deaths out of 348 bird flu human cases have been registered worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2003.
Farmers on alert after bird flu outbreak
David Adam, Steven Morris, Fred Attewill and agencies
Friday January 11, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
Environmental officials were today visiting poultry farmers and smallholders throughout the control zone set up around the Dorset swannery where three birds were found to have the deadly H5N1 flu strain.
Defra staff were examining birds for signs of the disease and urging farmers to report any possible symptoms as government vets awaited the result of tests on more dead birds discovered near the Abbotsbury swannery.
The infected birds had been found by routine surveillance, and efforts were under way to discover where the virus came from.
The outbreak poses little risk to human health. Swannery staff are being monitored for symptoms and have been given Tamiflu tablets as a precaution.
Two more dead swans were found overnight nearby but the swannery's tourism manager, John Houston, said this was nothing unusual.
He said: "It's not unusual for birds to die in the winter of natural causes. In fact, there are less dying at the moment than normal because it's quite warm. Until I hear otherwise I am going to assume the best."
Fred Landeg, the acting chief veterinary officer for the government, said: "While this is obviously unwelcome news, we have always said that Britain is at a constant low-level risk of introduction of avian influenza. Our message to all bird keepers, particularly those in the area, is that they must be vigilant, report any signs of disease immediately, and practise the highest levels of biosecurity."
An area around the swannery has been set up where owners must isolate flocks from wild birds, though no disease has been found in domestic birds; surveillance of wild birds is to be increased. Defra said there were no plans to cull wild flocks as this might disperse birds. Government vets are also testing 800 other swans at the Abbotsbury reserve.
The outbreak comes less than a month after restrictions on poultry movement were lifted in Norfolk and Suffolk that had been imposed after an outbreak of H5N1 on a free range turkey farm in November. The National Farmers' Union said it was monitoring the situation closely.
Wild birds are the likely source of infection, but Andre Farrar, of the RSPB, said: "It is slightly odd that it's happened at this time of year. It's not a migration period." One possibility was that the virus had been brought to the region some time ago, but only recently infected the birds.
Colin Butter, of the Institute for Animal Health, said: "The finding of H5N1 in swans in Dorset is consistent with the results of investigations following the November outbreak in turkeys. These suggested that farmed birds were infected from migratory wildfowl ... they will have been in close contact with migratory species."
The swannery, a tourist attraction close to Chesil beach, claims to be the only managed colony of mute swans in the world. It was established by Benedictine monks in the 11th century.
The celebrity cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who keeps a flock of chickens and other game birds at his River Cottage HQ in west Dorset, said: "Bird flu is a serious matter and I know that everyone who keeps poultry in the area will be very concerned about the risk of finding it."
Link: The Guardian UK special reports on Bird Flu
Bird flu virus confirmed after deaths at Dorset swannery
David Adam and Steven Morris
Friday January 11, 2008
The Guardian
Government vets were last night awaiting the results of tests on more dead birds discovered in southern England, following confirmation that three swans in Dorset had the deadly H5N1 flu strain.
The environment department, Defra, said the dead birds had been found at Abbotsbury swannery by routine surveillance, and efforts were under way to discover where the virus came from; the outbreak poses little risk to human health. Swannery staff are being monitored for symptoms and have been given Tamiflu tablets as a precaution.
Fred Landeg, acting chief veterinary officer for the government, said: "While this is obviously unwelcome news, we have always said that Britain is at a constant low-level risk of introduction of avian influenza. Our message to all bird keepers, particularly those in the area, is that they must be vigilant, report any signs of disease immediately, and practise the highest levels of biosecurity."
An area around the swannery has been set up where owners must isolate flocks from wild birds, though no disease has been found in domestic birds; surveillance of wild birds is to be increased. Defra said there were no plans to cull wild flocks as this might disperse birds. Results from tests on two more dead wild birds found nearby are due over the weekend. Government vets are also testing 800 other swans at the Abbotsbury reserve.
The outbreak comes less than a month after restrictions on poultry movement were lifted in Norfolk and Suffolk that had been imposed after an outbreak of H5N1 on a free range turkey farm in November. The National Farmers' Union said it was monitoring the situation closely.
Wild birds are the likely source of infection, but Andre Farrar of the RSPB said: "It is slightly odd that it's happened at this time of year. It's not a migration period." One possibility was that the virus had been brought to the region some time ago, but only recently infected the birds.
Colin Butter, of the Institute for Animal Health, said: "The finding of H5N1 in swans in Dorset is consistent with the results of investigations following the November outbreak in turkeys. These suggested that farmed birds were infected from migratory wildfowl ... they will have been in close contact with migratory species."
The swannery, a tourist attraction close to Chesil beach, claims to be the only managed colony of mute swans in the world; it was established by Benedictine monks in the 11th century.
Celebrity cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who keeps a flock of chickens and other game birds at his River Cottage HQ in West Dorset, said: "Bird flu is a serious matter and I know that everyone who keeps poultry in the area will be very concerned about the risk of finding it."
Backstory
On October 21 2005, British authorities confirmed that a parrot from Surinam had died of bird flu in Essex. The virus was later confirmed to be the lethal H5N1 strain, but the bird was in quarantine so the UK's disease-free status was not affected. In April 2006, a dead swan in Cellardyke, on the Fife coast, was found to be infected and a protection zone was set up. Two weeks later, chickens at Witford Lodge farm, near Norwich, also tested positive and 35,000 were slaughtered. Another outbreak struck in January last year, when turkeys on a Bernard Matthews farm in Suffolk died in suspicious circumstances. The state veterinary service was contacted and the entire 159,000-bird flock was culled in the first H5N1 outbreak among British poultry since 1991. Last November, all 5,000 poultry at Redgrave Park farm on the Norfolk-Suffolk border were slaughtered after another outbreak.
Link: The Guardian UK special reports on Bird Flu
China says son infected father with bird flu but virus not mutation
Posted : Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:21:04 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Health
Beijing - China's latest human bird-flu case was a result of human-to-human transmission but did not occur because of a mutation in the virus, the official Xinhua news agency reported Thursday. Tests indicated that the 52-year-old man in the southern city of Nanjing was infected with H5N1, the strain of the virus that can be deadly in humans, through close contact with his son, 24, Xinhua said, citing health authorities.
The son, identified only by his surname Lu, died December 2, but his father, who became ill a day later, has recovered.
Human-to-human transmission of the disease is rare. Most patients contract it through close contact with infected poultry, but health experts said they fear the virus could mutate into a form that would be easily transmissible between people, creating a worldwide pandemic that could kill millions.
While officials had identified the source of the elder Lu's infection, how the younger man got it remained unclear, the Health Ministry said, adding that neither man had contact with sick or dead poultry.
Authorities had kept a close eye on 83 people who had close contact with the two men, but none developed bird-flu symptoms, the ministry said.
According to the World Health Organization, 216 people have died of bird flu in 12 countries in Asia and Africa. Seventeen of those have been in China, where a total of 27 infections have been reported since 2003.
Agricultural Ministry begins culling birds as preemptive action against bird flu
3 January, 2008
Israel News
Poultry in Beit Hanania destroyed as safety measure following bird flu outbreak in nearby community. 'I don't have the mental strength to watch - it's very difficult,' chicken coop owner says, 'we have no idea what the future holds for us; this is our livelihood' Meital Yasur Beit-Or
Inspectors from the Agriculture Ministry's Veterinary Service began the process of culling some 4,000 chickens and Turkeys at Moshav Beit Hanania on Friday in an effort to contain the bird flu outbreak detected in a Binyamina kindergarten petting zoo.
The process, which is expected to be completed before Shabbat enters, will be carried out at a chicken coop belonging to the Muchersky family, the only one located within a two-mile radius of the kindergarten.
On Thursday some 200 chickens were culled in Binyamina.
The Agriculture Ministry said lab tests of samples taken from chicken coops in the area were negative, but it will go ahead with the culling as a safety measure against the spreading of the bird flu virus. The chicken coop owners will be compensated, the ministry added.
The chickens are killed by electrocution in less than a second, in accordance with local animal rights regulations. Parrots and birds will be beheaded or receive a lethal injection.
Once destroyed, the culled poultry will be buried in a pit dug especially for that purpose.
"The chickens are being electrocuted; there are a lot of people outside, but I don't have the mental strength to watch - it's very difficult," Nava Muchersky said. "We have no idea what the future holds for us; this is our livelihood."
A four-year-old girl who attended the kindergarten was admitted to the Hillel Jaffe Medical Center in Hadera Thursday with flu-like symptoms. Lab results showed that she had not contracted the bird-flu virus but was rather suffering from the Respiratory Syncytial Virus, the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia among young children.
Deadly strain of bird flu found in Binyamina
Health Ministry makes positive ID of H5N1 bird flu virus in Binyamina kindergarten. Agriculture Ministry quarantines all chicken coops, hatcheries within six-mile radius pending further testing
Raanan Ben-Zur
Published: 01.03.08, 14:22
Israel News
The Haifa District Physician, Prof. Shmuel Rishpon, confirmed Thursday that a deadly strain of the bird flu virus has infected chickens at a petting zoo in a Binyamina kindergarten.
Earlier Thursday morning 18 of the 25 chickens in the kindergarten's petting zoo, were found dead. "The virus was identified as H5N1 bird flue," said Rishpon, adding that humans that contract this strain have only a 50% survival rate.
Rishpon commended the kindergarten teacher for her decision not to discard the dead chickens but rather to call a veterinarian, who sent samples of the poultry's blood to the Health Ministry for further testing.
"The kindergarten staff has been given preventive medicines and as far as we know, none of the children or their parents came in contact with the birds.
"The virus can only be transmitted by direct contact," he added. "We have alerted the hospitals in the area to look out for any children or adults coming in with bird flu-like symptoms."
Veterinarian Gilad Goldstein, who was called to the scene, told Ynet he was called in due to an unusual number of deaths in the petting zoo.
"It was obvious that some sort of epidemic hit the petting zoo, which made me suspect either NVD (Newcastle Disease Virus – a viral infection in birds) or the bird flu… knowing there was a bird flu alert in the area, I sent blood samples to the Health Ministry."
Aryeh Zitouni, head of the Binyamina-Givat Ada Regional Council, told Ynet that "at this point we know the disease has not spread further… the hatcheries in the surrounding areas have been fumigated and we are still waiting to hear whether or not we'll have to put down all the poultry within a two-mile radius."
The Agriculture Ministry announced it was putting all chicken coops and hatcheries within a six-mile radius under quarantine, since its lab reports confirm the chickens found dead in a Binyamina kindergarten died of bird flu.
The Health Ministry has opened a pubic hotline for information about the outbreak – 972-3-6951541. The hotline will be operational until 5pm (GMT).
Vaccine to combat all types of flu 'by 2011'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 9:00am GMT 04/01/2008
The Telegraph UK
A vaccine to protect against every strain of influenza, the virus behind bird flu, winter flu and pandemics, could be available before 2011.
A Cambridge-based company, Acambis, today reports two preliminary trials of a universal vaccine, saying it could be ready within three years if development was accelerated to deal with a advertisement pandemic.
Current flu vaccines work only against specific strains and because they mutate
frequently there are concerns about whether a vaccine could be prepared in time to combat a pandemic strain of the kind that killed up to 50 million people in 1918.
The new vaccine focuses on parts of the virus that do not mutate, eliminating the need for a new version every year.
Tests on ferrets, which model human disease accurately, suggest that this vaccine called Acam-Flu-A can protect against deadly influenza strains including H5N1, the type of bird flu seen in poultry in East Anglia last year.
Dr Michael Watson, executive vice-president at Acambis, said: "Acam-Flu-A can potentially overcome many of the drawbacks of existing influenza vaccines.
"It can be manufactured at any time of the year and could be stockpiled in advance of a pandemic or potentially used routinely to ensure population protection against future pandemics."
All three 20th century pandemics were caused by viruses related to avian flu.
The World Health Organisation has issued a statement saying that, as a result of the lethal H5N1 strain, the world was "closer to a further pandemic than it has been at any time since 1968".
Outbreak of bird flu hits thousands of poultry in western China
Saturday, January 5
Associated Press
BEIJING - Bird flu has killed 4,850 poultry in northwest China, the official Xinhua News Agency said Friday.
The outbreak occurred in Turpan, a city in the Xinjiang region, on Dec. 29 and a state laboratory confirmed the presence of the pathogenic H5N1 virus on Thursday, Xinhua said.
Some 29,383 birds were slaughtered as a result, it said.
The last reported outbreak in poultry occurred in September, when 9,830 ducks died in southern China near Hong Kong.
China, which raises more poultry than any other country in the world, has vowed an aggressive fight against H5N1, which has killed 216 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
It remains hard for people to catch, but experts worry that every outbreak in poultry may make it easier for the virus to mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, potentially igniting a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.
N.Y. fears bird epidemic
Avian reovirus is suspected in the death of hundreds of crows throughout the state, wildlife officials say.
By Delthia Ricks, Newsday
January 4, 2008
Los Angeles Times
MELVILLE, N.Y. -- A mysterious die-off of hundreds of crows throughout New York state has been linked to the avian reovirus, a pathogen that has threatened the poultry industry in the past, relentlessly sweeping through flocks, state wildlife officials said Thursday.
The virus is not likely to jump the species barrier to infect humans. However, state health officials are taking no chances, and scientists at Wadsworth Center, a division of the state Health Department, were studying the virus.
State wildlife pathologist Ward Stone, who was instrumental nearly a decade ago in identifying the pathogen that turned out to be the West Nile virus, said the sudden sweep of death among crows had caught scientists by surprise.
"Initially, I didn't know what it was," Stone told Newsday on Thursday. "You really don't know until you do the post-mortem examinations," which include preliminary viral typing, he said. Additional specimens are being sent to a federal wildlife laboratory in Madison, Wis., which is expected to provide further molecular details about the strain.
"It's causing necrotizing enteritis," Stone said, referring to a severe hemorrhagic intestinal disorder that leaves few survivors. The virus is feared by executives in the broiler chicken industry, which produces most of the poultry sold in the United States. Epidemics have swept through flocks, destroying potential profits.
Stone added that various reovirus strains have been identified in the United States and Canada in recent years but only a small number of crows in New York contracted the virus and died.
Now, a dramatic shift in viral spread, which became most noticeable shortly after Christmas, has all the makings of a bird epidemic. Crows not only have died but sometimes have succumbed in large groups. Stone suspects when temperatures warm as expected next week, causing snow to melt in many upstate communities, more dead crows will be found.
So far, dead crows have been found in Albany, Dutchess, Jefferson, Montgomery, Orange and Steuben counties. The largest number of dead birds -- about 100 -- have been found in Poughkeepsie.
Stone thinks it's only a matter of time before dead crows are spotted on Long Island and in Queens and Manhattan. He also suspects the infection will sweep into Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Health officials on Long Island have not found anything suspicious. Wendy Ladd, spokeswoman for the Suffolk County Health Department, said communities were already aware that dead crows would be reported because of the summertime spread of West Nile disease.
"We have not seen any increase in dead crows," Ladd said Thursday. "We have a bird hotline for people to call and we haven't gotten any calls about it."
Cynthia Brown, spokeswoman for the Nassau County Health Department, also reported silent hotlines. "I have not heard any unusual crow kill-offs," she said.
Crows, Stone said, tend to live in large social groups in winter composed of smaller families and individual birds. Such clustering helps explain why so many crows are dying simultaneously. Crows tend to live in small families during other seasons.
No other types of birds have been affected, but state biologists were monitoring ravens, magpies and blue jays, which are closely related to crows and have similar nesting habits.
Pet Stores Put Bird Sales On Hold Due To Bacterial Infection
POSTED: 12:04 pm EST January 2, 2008
UPDATED: 12:41 pm EST January 2, 2008
WFTV.com
CENTRAL FLORIDA -- Central Florida pet stores were on alert Wednesday. They are putting pet bird sales on hold while the Health Department tries to stop the spread of a bacterial infection that could infect humans.
Central Florida pet stores are part of a voluntary quarantine after birds from a vendor near Pensacola confirmed cases of psittacosis.
The vendor, Perfect Birds, supplies birds to local PetSmart stores and other stores.
Psittacosis is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted to humans through bird droppings in the form of a non-lethal-flu like illness.
The quarantine is expected to last 6 weeks.
Bird flu pandemic could cost 2 trln usd - World Bank
12.04.07, 5:05 AM ET
AFX News Limited
NEW DELHI (Thomson Financial) - The global cost of a possible bird flu pandemic could be up to 2 trln usd, a top World Bank official said.
The risk of a pandemic was still as great as it was two years ago despite improvements in the capacity of many countries to respond to the infection, a joint report by the United Nations and World Bank warned last week.
'The global economic costs could be between 1.5 to 2 trln usd,' Peter Harrold, acting Vice President of the World Bank told an international conference on avian flu in New Delhi.
International donors had pledged 2.3 bln usd to help countries combat the threat, and more than 1 bln usd had been allocated to other groups involved in the fight, Harrold said.
More than 600 delegates from 105 countries are in New Delhi to discuss preparedness and challenges in fighting avian flu at the three-day conference, which began Saturday.
Experts fear a virus mutation that could result in severe and easily transmitted influenza in humans could create the next pandemic, with far-reaching consequences.
'About 20 pct of the global population will be affected during the next pandemic,' Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organisation, told the gathering.
Chan said 28 mln people may need medical care over a relatively short period and worker absenteeism could reach 35 pct of the work force.
But experts said considerable progress had been made in preparing for a pandemic.
'Ninety-five percent of the countries report that they have developed pandemic preparedness plans,' said David Nabarro, UN Systems Co-ordinator for Avian Influenza and one of the authors of the UN-World Bank report.
However the response was still 'patchy,' and 'entrenched' infection in some countries continued to pose a major threat to human health, Nabarro said.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 200 people worldwide since late 2003.
Dominican Authorities Quarantine, Sacrifice Birds After Bird Flu Discovery
By VOA News
03 January 2008
Dominican authorities have quarantined and sacrificed a number of birds after detecting a strain of bird flu last month.
The World Organization for Animal Health said in a report that 130 birds were slaughtered after authorities discovered a case of the virus near the capital, Santo Domingo, and another some 145 kilometers to the east in the village of Higüey.
Officials say the virus is the H5N2 strain, which does not affect humans.
Government livestock director Angel Faxas said officials believe the virus reached the Dominican Republic through birds introduced into the country illegally.
The World Health Organization reports that the more virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed 216 people worldwide since 2003.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP.
Nations meet to fight flu
Fiji Times
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
REPRESENTATIVES of five Pacific island nations are meeting in Nadi to prepare strategic communication plans in case of the avian influenza or a pandemic influenza reaching their shores.
With the avian flu already detected very close to the region's borders, Pacific island nations have been urged not to be complacent about the issue as the disease has the potential of wiping out and bringing about a total collapse of civil law and order.
Calling for an approach involving all stakeholders, the organisers of the weeklong workshop has brought together government representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and National Disaster Management Office along with non government organisations, regional bodies and media organisations from Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Kiribati for the Strategic Communication Planning Workshop on Avian and Pandemic Influenza in Nadi.
UNICEF Pacific chief communications officer, Daniel Dravet said it was vital that every stakeholder was involved to ensure proper information was passed onto the public.
Mr Dravet said while regional governments are well aware of the threat, they have found that the population lacked awareness.
He said most of the countries had avian influenza or pandemic influenza plans in place but these did not include communication preparedness what to inform the public or stakeholders.
He said during the workshop, the participants would work on drafting communication plans for each of the five countries.
Burma Reports New Bird Flu Outbreak
By VOA News
29 December 2007
Burma has reported an outbreak of bird flu among chickens in the country's eastern Shan state.
The official "New Light of Myanmar" newspaper said Saturday that authorities confirmed the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus on Thursday, after an unspecified number of chickens had died in Yankham village.
Officials said they determined that the virus was spread to the area from Kengtung Township, where bird flu broke out in December 18.
Burma and the World Health Organization had earlier confirmed the country's first human bird flu case, when a seven-year-old girl was hospitalized in late November. The girl survived the disease and was discharged in early December.
Seven countries in East Asia have reported human cases of the potentially deadly virus. The two with the greatest number of cases are Indonesia and Vietnam.
More than 200 people in 13 countries have died from the disease since 2003. Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
Donors Pledge Additional $400 Million to Fight Bird Flu
By VOA News
06 December 2007
International donors at a conference on bird flu in India's capital, New Delhi, have pledged more than $400 million in additional funds to deal with the global threat of the disease.
International donors made the pledges Thursday, the final day of the three-day event, attended by delegates from more than 100 countries.
The United States, the largest donor in the fight against avian influenza, pledged $195 million additional, followed by France and Germany.
Acting vice president of the World Bank, Peter Harrold, said there is still a gap, but that the additional funding is more than what anybody had anticipated. He called it a very encouraging response to the problem.
International donors have already pledged two-point-three billion dollars to help developing countries fight the virus.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who addressed the conference Wednesday, stressed the importance of focusing on animal health.
He said the best available strategy is to control the epidemic at its source, adding Indian scientists are developing vaccines for both poultry and people.
World Health Organization officials say nearly 20 percent of the global population will be affected during the next bird flu pandemic.
Bird flu has killed more than 200 people since 2003.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters and AFP.
China Warns of Possible Winter, Spring Bird Flu Outbreak
By VOA News
11 December 2007
Chinese authorities are warning of a "very high" possibility of outbreaks of bird flu over the next several months as health officials hunt for clues how a father and son became infected with the virus.
Vice Agriculture Minister Yin Chengjie was quoted as saying Tuesday he is not optimistic about winter and spring months when the virus is at its most contagious.
Yin said it is critical to improve methods of poultry breeding, slaughter, delivery and processing in the country.
Meanwhile, Chinese health officials are trying to determine how a Chinese man from eastern Jiangsu province, whose son died from bird flu December 2, also contracted the virus. No bird flu outbreak has been reported among the province's wild birds or poultry.
The case is raising concerns of possible human to human transmission.
Scientists have been concerned the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus could change into a form easily passed among humans, sparking a pandemic.
The World Health Organization reports there have been at least 26 human cases of avian flu confirmed in China in recent years, 17 of them fatal.
Bird flu outbreaks were reported last month in Hong Kong, South Korea and Burma.
The WHO says more than 200 people have died of bird flu worldwide since the first outbreak in 2003. Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
WHO Confirms Burma's First Human Case of Bird Flu
By VOA News
14 December 2007
The World Health Organization has confirmed Burma's first human case of bird flu.
Based on information provided by the Burmese Ministry of Health, the WHO identified the victim as a seven-year-old girl from eastern Shan State.
Officials say she developed symptoms of the disease last month in an area where there had been an outbreak of the H5N1 virus in poultry. The girl survived the disease.
Seven countries in East Asia have reported human cases of the potentially deadly H5N1 virus. The two with the greatest number of cases are Indonesia and Vietnam.
More than 200 people in 13 countries have died from the disease since 2003.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
Egypt Reports 16th Human Death From Bird Flu
By VOA News
26 December 2007
Egypt's health ministry says an Egyptian woman has died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu. She is the 16th person to succumb to the virus in Egypt.
Authorities say the 25-year old woman was diagnosed with bird flu Tuesday and died the same day. She had entered a hospital in the central province of Beni Suef last Friday.
Authorities suspect the woman came into contact with infected birds at her home. Family members are being tested to see if they also are infected.
In Vietnam, health officials say they suspect a four-year-old child from northern Vietnam died of bird flu earlier this month at a Hanoi hospital. If confirmed, it would be Vietnam's 47th death from the virus since late 2003.
Also Wednesday, authorities in Indonesia reported the death of a 24-year old woman from the H5N1 virus.
She died at a hospital in Jakarta Tuesday, becoming Indonesia's 94th confirmed fatality from the virus.
Indonesian officials are still trying to determine how she was exposed to the virus. Indonesia has had more cases of bird flu in humans than any other country.
Health experts say humans become infected with the virus after coming into contact with sick poultry. They are concerned that the virus could evolve into a form easily transmissible between humans, which could result in a serious worldwide outbreak.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
Health Officials Call for Increase in Bird Flu Surveillance
By Naomi Martig
Hong Kong
17 December 2007
Experts with the World Health Organization are urging countries to step up surveillance of bird flu outbreaks in poultry. The announcement follows Pakistan's first human bird flu fatality and Burma's first reported human case of bird flu. As Naomi Martig reports from VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong, concern is also growing that as colder weather sweeps through much of the northern hemisphere, so will cases of the potentially deadly virus.
The World Health Organization says the bird flu virus is likely to become more prevalent in the coming months, because just as people are prone to sickness in cold weather, so are birds.
Malik Peiris teaches microbiology at Hong Kong University. He was part of a team that in 2003 provided the first genetic map of the bird flu virus and its mutations. He says more temperate parts of the world will see increased transmission of the virus.
"And the reason for this may be the fact that the virus seems to survive for a long period of time in the cooler temperature, especially when it is moist and wet," Peiris said.
Bird flu has killed more than 200 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003. The two countries with the greatest number of human cases are Indonesia and Vietnam.
Hans Troedssan, spokesman for the World Health Organization's Beijing office, says the WHO is urging health workers to be alert, including those in countries where there have been few cases of bird flu.
"There is risk which we have seen in some countries, the risk of complacency particularly among the public and thinking that there is no danger anymore," Troedssan said.
Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam are among the countries that have been praised for efficiently dealing with bird flu outbreaks in poultry. But Troedssan warns that complacency is greatest in countries that have had the most success containing the virus.
The majority of people infected by bird flu contracted the virus from sick poultry. But there have been cases of human transmission. Peiris says experts are concerned the virus could mutate into a form easily passed between people.
"The most worrying thing is that if the virus does adapt to human transmission and causes a pandemic, the severity of human disease could be catastrophic," Peiris said. "It could be much worse even than the 1918 pandemic. And I think that is why we have to take it seriously."
The World Health Organization has sent medical teams to Pakistan to investigate the possibility of human-to-human transmission in the country's first human cases of bird flu. At least five of the eight people infected are from the same family.
Israel Says H5N1 Bird Flu Strain Found in Kindergarten Zoo
By VOA News
03 January 2008
Israeli health authorities say they have found the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in dead chickens at a kindergarten petting zoo.
The Israeli Agriculture Ministry says 18 chickens were found dead Thursday at the kindergarten in the northern town of Binyamina. The ministry says tests later confirmed they were infected with the H5N1 virus that is potentially lethal to humans.
Israeli authorities alerted hospitals in the area to look out for any children or adults with high fever, the most common symptom associated with the virus.
Authorities also are checking for other bird flu outbreaks within a 10-kilometer radius of the kindergarten.
Israel culled more than one million chickens and turkeys in March 2006 after the H5N1 virus infected poultry at several communal farms.
Migratory birds are thought to have spread the virus from Asia to the Middle East and Europe.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
Four Bird Flu Fatalities in Egypt in a Week
By VOA News
31 December 2007
Health officials in Egypt say two more women in the country have died from bird flu, bringing the death toll from the disease to four in less than one week.
The health ministry said in a statement that one victim, from Menoufia province in the Nile Delta, was admitted to a hospital on Saturday and died Monday. A ministry official said the victim was exposed to infected poultry.
Later in the day, health officials said a second woman, also from the Nile Delta, died from the disease. Further details of her case were not immediately available.
If confirmed by the World Health Organization, Monday's deaths will bring the number of bird flu fatalities in Egypt to 19. Forty three cases of human infection have been confirmed in the country since the virus appeared there in February 2006.
Egypt's location on major bird migration routes and the widespread practice of keeping domestic fowl near living quarters have helped make it the hardest-hit country outside of Asia.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
China reports human death from bird flu
Published: Dec. 3, 2007 at 7:30 AM
United Press
BEIJING, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A 24-year-old man in Jiangsu province in east China died of bird flu, the 17th human victim of the deadly virus in the country, Xinhua reported Monday.
Local health officials said the man died Sunday after developing fever, chills and other bird flu symptoms. He was admitted Nov. 27 to a hospital, where his condition deteriorated resulting in his death, the report said.
The victim's respiratory tract sample showed positive signs of H5N1, the generic make-up of the virus. Health officials were quoted as saying the man had not had any contact with infected or deceased fowl.
Xinhua said the local government has put all the 69 people with whom the victim came into contact under strict medical observation and thus far none of them has shown any signs of the disease.
China's health ministry has reported the case to the World Health Organization as well as to Hong Kong, Macao and some foreign governments, the report said.
China has reported 26 human cases of bird flu since 2003, 17 of them fatal, the report said.
22,000 turkeys culled to stop bird flu spreading
John Vidal, environment editor
Thursday November 15, 2007
Nearly 22,000 more free-range turkeys on four farms closely linked to the H5N1-infected poultry farm in Suffolk were last night being culled as a precaution against the bird flu strain spreading.
None of the birds were tested for the disease but all were considered to be at risk by government vets because the five farms share a small workforce which travels between the sites.
It follows the gassing of nearly 6,000 birds on Tuesday, and suggests that the authorities fear the disease could have spread beyond the original outbreak, via wild birds or humans.
The birds are all on farms within 10 miles of Redgrave Park - where the bird flu outbreak of H5N1 was confirmed on Tuesday - which are operated by Redgrave Poultry, a subsidiary of Gressingham foods.
"At this stage we have not confirmed disease on any of these four premises. This is a precautionary measure," said acting chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg. Redgrave Poultry last night said it was bemused by the source of the disease. "None of the workforce goes to the continent; all are local," said a spokesman for the company.
He said that the turkeys found to have caught the disease had no access to wild birds on an ornamental lake at Redgrave Hall stately home, as reported yesterday. "Redgrave Park is a free-range farm where birds are kept in paddocks during the day and have housing available for night-time. All of their feed and water is provided indoors in order to discourage wildfowl.
"The turkeys are prevented from accessing the lake on the property by electrified fencing, empty ground and a farm road. It is pretty much unknown for a wild bird to be found in one of the turkey sheds."
He also denied that Redgrave Poultry or its subsidiaries imported turkey poults (chicks) from abroad and said that all the birds' feed came from Britain.
Last night the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was considering what to do with a flock of 30,000 free-range geese being bred for the company at a farm two miles from the outbreak. These are understood to be traditionally bred seasonal geese which live outdoors and there are no facilities to bring them indoors.
The virus in this outbreak has been found by government vets to be similar to the one found in the Czech Republic in August and in Germany in September, where it affected turkeys, chickens, geese and ducks. This is the fourth outbreak of bird flu in Britain in 10 months, more than any other country in Europe. The others were at the Bernard Matthews farm in February, a smallholding in north Wales in May, and on Merseyside in June. All were contained.
Indon boy dies of bird flu,toll now 88
The Straits Times
Oct 16, 2007
JAKARTA - A 12-year-old boy at Ceger village in Tangerang district in Banten province near here died of the H5N1 virus over the weekend, bringing to 88 the death toll in bird flu cases in Indonesia, a health official reported.
The boy was brought to a local midwife on Oct 3 after suffering from fever for three days, said head of the communicable disease control and prevention section at the Tangerang district health office, Dr Yuliah Iskandar.
As his health condition deteriorated, the boy was transferred to the Tangerang regional hospital where he underwent a medical test on Oct 8, she said on Tuesday.
He was later moved to Persahabatan Hospital in Jakarta on Oct 9 for further medical treatment as he had tested positive for bird flu based on the result of a laboratory test conducted by the Health Research and Development Agency and the Eijkmann Institute, she added.
In anticipation of the possible spread of the H5N1 virus in the area, the district health office had sent officers to Ceger village to take samples of the blood of boy's relatives and neighbours.
Dr Yuliah said the boy did not have contact with dead chicken before being infected with the bird flu virus and neither did his parents raise poultry in their backyard.
'But there is backyard poultry about 500m from the victim's house,' she said. -- BERNAMA