Posted on 11/19/2005 12:06:54 PM PST by HAL9000
TORONTO (CP) - The Canadian Press has learned wild ducks in Manitoba have tested positive for H5-N1 avian flu viruses, but not the dangerous form of the virus circulating in Southeast Asia.The findings will be reported by federal officials at a news conference Saturday afternoon.
A source confirmed that H5-N1 viruses were isolated from two ducks as part of a cross-country surveillance program to find what avian flu viruses are being carried by wild ducks in this country.
The viruses are not considered a threat to human health.
The source says the there is no "new threat to human health and certainly not a new threat to the poultry industry or anything like that."
So far, all the viruses that have been found through the surveillance program - including the H5-N1s - are of low pathogenicity.
The Asian H5-N1 viruses are highly pathogenic, meaning they are lethal to chickens. Those H5-N1 viruses have also infected 130 people in five countries since 2003 and 67 of those people have died.
Canadian scientists who have studied big chunks of the genetic code of the two proteins on the surface of the Manitoba H5-N1 viruses have confirmed these viruses are from the family of North American H5-N1 viruses, not the strains circulating in Southeast Asia.
Is anybody who is worried about bird flu also attracted to ID?
I don't understand the question.
It's a question for the database miners.
H5 Detected on Farm Duck in British Columbia
Recombinomics Commentary
November 18, 2005
Preliminary tests show that a strain of H5 bird flu has been found in a farm duck in British Columbia's Fraser Valley.
B.C. government officials say they are not sure which strain of the H5 avian bird flu was found in the duck.
The farm where the duck was found has been quarantined. Officials won't reveal the exact location of the farm, but say it is located in the central Fraser Valley near Abbotsford.
Officials say the bird showed no signs of avian influenza and won't reveal why it was pulled from a processing plant.
Swab samples from the duck are on their way to a Winnipeg lab for testing. Results could take up to 48 hours.
The above comments are cause for additional concern. Wild birds that were swabbed in August as part of a Canadian banding study tested positive for H5. A remarkable 24% of the birds tested in British Columbia were positive. 14 strong positives were sent to Winnipeg for testing along with 28 H5 positives from Quebec and 5 from Manitoba. Although testing for HPAI is routine and H5N1 in wild birds from Asia have been well characterized, Canada has still not released the results from the H5 wild birds.
Media is told that the isolates are mixtures and require cloning, but a sequence across the HA cleavage site would determine if there is any HPAI H5N1 in the birds.
The above comments indicate that HPAI on the commercial samples were be tested in 48 hours to determine if the H5 is HPAI. If the HA cleavage site contains RRRKKR, then the isolate will not only be HPAI, but it will also almost certainly be H5N1 closely related to the Asian H5N1 sequences from wild birds at Qinghai Lake. Novosibirsk, and Mongolia.
The H5 determinations on the wild birds are long overdue. Sequencing across the HA cleavage site does not require cloning.
It is time for Canada to stop stalling and release the data.
Time to shut off the border, maybe?
To birds???
Of course, the line is just a jest to Canada. Seriously closing borders is impossible to contain the avian flu.
Amazingly, some people have seriously suggested that we could or should stop the migration of birds.
People who have suggested this probably come from
the U.S or Australia....such good buddies and partners.....separated by thousands of miles....lol.
They like to proclaim they are "bed buddies" anyway.
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