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The H5 is VERY likely to have an HA cleavage site of GERRRKKR. All isolates with that sequence are HPAI H5N1.
The N is just a stall to keep from admiting that it's HPAI. N1 doesn't mean anything. H5N1 can be low path if the cleavage site is low path (doesn't have the multi-basic cleavage site).
Again, remember that the releases of sequence is a decision of Northcomm in North America since over 3 years, that is when this Public Health problem became a Continental Security problem.
It as been state few days ago that they are monitering on-line and via survey the public reaction to some pandemic informations.
... and believe me, in face of Continental Security executive forces, there is no room to negociations.
... and despite all this we still have the opportunity to express solutions, hints and tips and even diffuse them.
Dr. Niman, I see now. Which puts you back to waiting for the sequences to be deposited to GenBank. The OIE Reports would not be able to clarify anything. Thanks!
Is it possible that they don't want to release the sequences because it could potentially tell us where else the virus has been? (i.e. the United States).
Is it possible that they don't want to release the sequences because it could potentially tell us where else the virus has been? (i.e. the United States).
-Hawkeye
Astrakhan Qinghai sequences have North American polymorphisms
Chance of Asian bird flu remote
Last updated Jun 19 2006 04:48 PM ADT
CBC News
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is saying the odds that an H5 bird flu found in a gosling in West Prince is the deadly H5N1 strain are extremely remote.
But the CFIA is still recommending that poultry producers on Prince Edward Island keep their livestock in a secure environment with no access to other birds or people.
Four goslings out of a flock of non-commercial flock of 40 kept in a yard near O'Leary were found to have the virus over the weekend, with the first case confirmed Friday.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is currently testing the birds to find out the exact strain of flu they carried.
Dr. Jim Clark, who heads up the avian influenza working group for CFIA, said it's not likely to be a virulent strain, but he adds it is good the outbreak was caught early. He said once the virus starts spreading among flocks, the infection can become much stronger.
"The danger would be if these H5 or H7 viruses make their way into chicken or turkey flocks," he said.
"They do have the capacity to change in pathogenicity rather quickly and represent a significant economic and health risk to the animal population of Canada."
Clark said Island poultry producers should be taking precautions to protect their flocks, and that means not letting any domestic fowl run free in the backyard, or anywhere else.
"You should be maintaining your flock under strict biosecurity standards," said Clark.
"If I was a poultry farmer on P.E.I. I would be very careful about who came to and from my property, under what circumstances, and I'd be very vigilant in terms of what was going on within my flock."
It's not clear how many Islanders keep backyard fowl outside biosecure buildings.
Preliminary results from CFIA's testing of the dead goslings are expected by mid-week.
A second Prince Edward Island farm has been placed under a quarantine order as a precautionary measure as authorities investigate the finding of an H5 avian flu virus in a domestic goose in that province.
An official of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the move was taken when investigators learned there had been traffic of people and perhaps poultry between the farm where the virus was found and another farm, both of which have small, mixed, free-range backyard flocks.
Dr. Jim Clark said no birds from the second farm have displayed signs of illness and for the time being, authorities have not ordered their destruction.
It will be Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest before lab testing confirms whether the virus was truly an H5, and whether it was a highly pathogenic form or a virus of low pathogenicity. The Asian H5N1 virus is a high path virus.
The CFIA's National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases in Winnipeg will also be looking to determine whether the virus is of a North American lineage or is one of the Asian viruses.
''The fact that there are no birds ill there - if the virus has moved - that again would be additional evidence that what we're dealing with here is a low pathogenicity virus,'' the Ottawa-based Clark, national manager of CFIA's avian influenza working group, said in a conference call with journalists. ''There's nothing that's obvious for us that would suggest . . . it is anything except a low pathogenicity virus,'' he said, but added that until testing is done there is no way to be sure.
The goose that tested positive for the virus was from a flock of 40 birds - Embden geese, muscovy ducks and plymouth bard rock chickens - in western P.E.I. Four of 11 geese died Monday. A post-mortem examination of the bird was inconclusive, said Clark, who noted a number of diseases could have caused the organ damage seen.
<table bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding="12" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td> Governments Respond to Preliminary Finding of Avian Influenza in Prince Edward Island
</td> </tr> <tr> </tr><tr align="left" valign="top"> <td> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="images">
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> Canadian authorities implement disease control measures. First North American response.
As a precautionary measure the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), in collaboration with the Government of Prince Edward Island, has implemented disease control measures in and around a premises in western Prince Edward Island where a young goose in a backyard flock tested positive for an avian influenza virus. It is important to note that this finding does not indicate a new threat to human health.
The virus was determined to be an H5 subtype in testing conducted by the Atlantic Veterinary College laboratory in Charlottetown. The sample has been sent to the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease (NCFAD) in Winnipeg for further testing to confirm its strain and pathogenicity. The NCFAD is Canada?s national reference laboratory for avian influenza. Testing is being conducted on a priority basis, results will be communicated as soon as they are available. </td></tr></tbody></table>http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsem....asp?a=109&z=1
Animals aren?t showing signs of illness at a second Prince County farm quarantined over fears of avian flu, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
?If there was any sign at all that there was influenza in these birds they wouldn?t be walking around healthy and happy which is what they are doing today,? said Marc Richard, spokesman for CFIA.
Richard said they are waiting for results from post-mortem testing of a gosling taken from a farm in Huntley before they can determine whether P.E.I.?s outbreak of avian flu is one of the slower-spreading low pathogenic varieties or if it represents the more virulent high-pathogenic strain of the avian influenza virus.
Richard said the virus found in a dead gosling has been confirmed as the H5 virus, but it will be late today or Wednesday at the earliest before specialists can narrow it down to a particular variety.
There are 15 varieties of influenza known to attack birds, of which the H5 and the H7 varieties can develop highly pathogenic forms.
Migratory waterfowl are considered a reservoir of influenza viruses by the World Health Organization although they are resistant to the illness themselves.
Direct or indirect contact, often via droppings, with waterfowl is a common cause of influenza outbreaks in domestic fowl.
Richard said the affected animals on P.E.I. came from a small, free-range flock of 40 chickens, geese and ducks. All the birds were destroyed as soon as avian flu was detected
?You wouldn?t call it a farm,? he said.
?These were a few birds that these people had. The second farm was one where we knew that there had been contact with the infected farm inside the incubation period of the virus.
?
Richard said commercial poultry and egg farmers in Canada have adopted strong containment measures aimed at keeping disease from ever reaching their flocks since an outbreak of bird flu in British Columbia led to the culling of million of birds several years ago.
?Biosecurity has been in place for some time,? he said. ?The first thing they do is to make sure they have their buildings closed off so that there are no openings where wild birds can get in to the flock.
?After that you make sure that rodent control is very strong and that there are disinfecting baths that people have to step in when entering or leaving a barn.
There?s a danger of the virus being tracked into a barn from droppings that may be outside.?
Richard said the poultry industry has adopted a policy of keeping careful track of
traffic between farms so that possible paths of virus spread can be followed and investigated.
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