Daily Bird Flu News Updates:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/LatestNews/?AREA=LatestNews&Display=6187
Reuters via SMH - 17th October 2005
Tackle bird flu at its source, vet urges
Building up South-East Asia's defences against bird flu could take 10 years, but fighting the virus at its source would be cheaper and a more effective way to stop a human pandemic, a top animal health official says.
Alejandro Thiermann, of the World Organisation for Animal Health, said too much attention was being paid to stockpiling scarce antiviral drugs and developing a vaccine, and "not enough on birds".
Agencies via Arab Times - 17th October 2005
Iran dead birds not bird flu; Kuwait bans poultry imports
KUWAIT - Kuwait said Saturday that it will ban the imports of all fresh, chilled and frozen poultry products, except those treated at 70 degrees centigrade from Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued the ban as a precautionary measure against the rapidly-spreading bird flu disease which kills millions of birds all over the world every day. European Commission for healthcare and the consumer protection Marcos Kiprianu had urged European Union countries to prepare large quantities of anti-virus to face the bird flu pandemic. The Gulf Sultanate of Oman on Saturday banned the import of all types of live birds and their products from Romania, Turkey and Iran, as part of measures to prevent the spread of avian flu. The ban was announced in a statement by Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Salem bin Hilal bin Ali al-Khalili, the state news agency ONA said.
Euro news - 17th October 2005
Romania takes strict measures to contain bird flu
Officials in Romania says they are doing all they can to stop the spread of the deadly strain of bird flu that has been found in the Danube delta region. Poultry is being slaughtered, cleaning operations are underway and doctors are going door-to-door in the affected areas to work out how many people face the risk of becoming infected.
Reuters via Planet Ark - 17th October 2005
INTERVIEW - Bird Flu Fight in Asia Key to Defeating Virus
HANOI - Building up Southeast Asia's defences against bird flu could take a decade but fighting the virus at its source would be cheaper and more effective to stop a human pandemic, a top animal health official said.
icNetwork - 17th October 2005
UK team's flu fact-finding mission
UK - British infection experts are travelling to south-east Asia to investigate how a deadly bird flu pandemic could be tackled.
The fact-finding mission was announced after the Government's chief medical officer warned that 50,000 Britons could be killed if the disease takes hold among the human population.
Associated Press via Taipei Times - 17th October 2005
Villagers resist forced culling of fowl
TURKEY - Turkish authorities responded quickly to the confirmation of an outbreak of H5N1, but many locals are not concerned about birds that `escape' destruction.
The Associated Press - 17th October 2005
Is it OK to eat chicken? Americans worry about bird flu
US - Americans fearful of bird flu are peppering health officials with all sorts of questions: Is it safe to have a bird feeder in my yard? If I see a dead bird, should I report it? Is it still OK to have turkey at Thanksgiving?
The answers are yes, no, and yes.
The Mercury - 17th October 2005
Migratory birds to be tested for flu
SOUTH AFRICA - Although there are conflicting views on whether South Africans should fear bird flu, no chances are being taken. Scientists of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research will this week attempt to catch at least 50 birds, believed to have migrated from Siberia to South Africa which have settled at Durban Harbour.
The Herald (Letters Page) - 17th October 2005
Consider vaccinating all poultry flocks
UK - In anticipation of the possibility of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), more commonly known as "bird flu", arriving in Scotland and affecting Scottish poultry flocks, we are requesting that the Scottish Executive consider the possibility of vaccinating all flocks in Scotland. According to the findings of a consultation run by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO): "A number of efficacious vaccines are commercially available [which] provide excellent protection against clinical disease in chickens, reducing mortalities and the effect of the disease on production." The report added that the "vast majority of vaccinated birds exposed to field virus do not become infected. For the few vaccinated birds that might become infected, shedding of virus is markedly reduced (both in the duration of excretion and the quantity of virus)."
New York Times via IHT - 16th October 2005
China keeps secret its plans to fight bird flu
CHINA - The first known case of the A(H5N1) strain of avian influenza was found in 1996 in a goose in China.
While the Beijing authorities insist that no poultry in the country has the disease now, Hong Kong University scientists who have studied the genetic evolution of the virus wrote in Nature in July that infected migratory birds in western China appeared to have contracted the disease in southern China; the virus has since spread from western China to East Asia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Romania.
The Chinese health authorities in Beijing have called repeatedly for vigilance against the disease. But they have refused to share virus samples from infected wild birds this year with international organizations and have quarreled with researchers who have suggested that the disease remains a problem.
The strain of A(H5N1) avian influenza, or bird flu, found in China is different from and older than the strain found in Thailand and Vietnam.
Reuters - 16th October 2005
Turkish vet says chicken tests do not show bird flu
TURKEY - A senior veterinarian was quoted on Sunday as saying that early tests on 1,000 chickens that died in Turkey did not point to bird flu, but officials stopped poultry transportation in the province where the chickens died.
Initial findings did not show the chickens in Agri province died from bird flu, the state Anatolian news agency reported head of a local veterinary institute, Ufuk Dinler, as saying. Final test results are expected in five or six days, he said.
AFX via Forbes - 16th October 2005
Bird flu strains in Turkey, Romania and Asia identical
BRUSSELS - The potentially deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus found in Romania is identical to those detected in both Turkey and Asia, European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said Saturday.
'This morning, tests confirmed that the virus in Romania was an H5N1 strain but further tests were required to confirm the link with the strain found in Asia and Turkey,' he said. 'This link has now been confirmed.'