New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

[HenryN]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

Deadly strain of bird flu found on UK farm

04/06/2008 - 1:16:13 PM

The strain of H7 bird flu found in chickens at a farm in Oxfordshire is the highly pathogenic type, British officials said today.

The avian flu virus was found yesterday in laying hens at the farm in Banbury, England, and all birds on the site were slaughtered.

Further tests are in progress to identify the exact type of the virus, while an investigation is under way to find where the disease came from.

http://www.eecho.ie/news/story/?trs=mhgbeyqleyql

[HenryN]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

Bird flu strain is deadly

04 June 2008 | 13:26


EAST Anglian farmers face worrying times after it emerged today that the strain of bird flu found in chickens on an Oxfordshire farm is ?highly pathogenic? - the first time it has been identified as such in Britain.

The H7 avian flu virus was discovered yesterday in hens at the farm in Banbury.

All birds on the site were slaughtered.

While the H7 strain has been found in Britain on several occasions before this is the first time it has been identified in the highly pathogenic, or deadly, form.

Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens said: ?I would stress the need for poultry keepers to be extremely vigilant, practise the highest levels of biosecurity and report any suspicions of disease to their local Animal Health Office immediately.?

http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=IPED04%20Jun%202008%2013%3A23%3A45%3A543

[HenryN]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

<CENTER>Bird flu: Tests reveal 'highly contagious' strain

</CENTER>LABORATORY results on dead chickens from an Oxfordshire farm show the H7 strain of bird flu is highly contagious.
Further tests will now take place to try to establish the exact type and any links with previously identified Avian flu viruses.
Up to 25,000 laying hens at Eastwood Farm, between Shenington and Shutford, about 10 miles west of Banbury, will be slaughtered this afternoon in a bid to stop the disease spreading.
A detailed epidemiological investigation is also under way to try to establish the origin of the disease.
A three-kilometre protection zone around the farm and a 10-kilometre surveillance zone remain in place.
The movement of birds and bird products has been banned in the whole of the temporary zone and restrictions have been imposed on people housing or having contact with wild birds. All bird gatherings have been banned.
Defra is urgently considering whether any wider measures may be needed.
The Health Protection Agency has confirmed that the risk to public health remains low.
The Food Standards Agency has also confirmed that there are no safety implications for the human food chain.
Poultry keepers are urged to be extremely vigilant, practise the highest levels of bio-security and report any suspicions of disease to their local Animal Health Office immediately.
For more information see the Defra website www.defra.gov.uk
1:19pm today


By Sam McGregor

http://www.witneygazette.net/misc/print.php?artid=2318453

[HenryN]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - An outbreak of the H7 strain of bird flu at a farm in central England is "highly pathogenic", officials said on Wednesday.
All the chickens on the farm have been slaughtered following detection of the virus, which does not pose a high risk to humans, at the farm in Banbury, Oxfordshire late on Tuesday.
"The Chief Veterinary Officer has confirmed that the strain of H7 avian influenza present in laying hens at the farm in Banbury is highly pathogenic," the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in statement.
Highly pathogenic means that the virus has a relatively high ability to produce disease.
Japan announced that it was suspending imports of poultry from Britain following the outbreak.
Officials near the affected farm have introduced measures meaning poultry within three kilometres (1.9 miles) of the farm must be isolated from wild birds and bird gatherings and movement of birds are banned within ten kilometres.
Britain's Health Protection Agency said the H7 strain of avian flu is largely a disease of birds and does not easily transmit to humans.
The Food Standards Agency said the case of bird flu "poses no safety implications for the human food chain". The H5N1 virus can cause human deaths and was most recently detected in Dorset, southern England in January. tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com afop/ejp/slj

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=6745343&action=article

[HenryN]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

Defra confirms H7 bird flu case in Oxfordshire

Chickens in Oxfordshire have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H7 strain of bird flu, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed today.
It is the first time a deadly form of the H7 virus has been identified in the UK, but Defra said the risk to humans was low.
All birds on the farm, near Banbury, are being slaughtered as a precautionary measure. An investigation into the origin of the outbreak is under way.
A temporary control zone was established around the premises when suspected bird flu was first identified yesterday.
The Food Standards Agency said there were no safety implications for the human food chain.
Defra said the H7 strain was "largely a disease of birds" and did not transmit easily to humans.
One vet died in the Netherlands when a deadly version of the H7N7 strain hit poultry in 2003. About 80 people suffered conjunctivitis, a non-life threatening eye infection.
An outbreak of the less severe H7N2 strain in the UK last year also led to cases of conjunctivitis as well as some mild respiratory infections.
There are other variants of the H7 strain, but Defra has yet to identify which form of the virus was present in the Oxfordshire chickens.
"I would stress the need for poultry keepers to be extremely vigilant, practice the highest levels of biosecurity and report any suspicions of disease to their local animal health office immediately," the chief vet, Nigel Gibbens, said.
The HN51 form of the virus is believed to be the variant most likely to jump from birds to humans in a form that is highly infectious and could trigger a potentially devastating flu pandemic.
However, a US study published last month found that H7N2 could possibly be passed from human to human and have "pandemic potential".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/04/birdflu

[HenryN]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

June 4, 2008


New bird flu outbreak near Banbury 'went undetected for three weeks'



<!-- END: Module - Main Heading --><!--CMA user Call Diffrenet Variation Of Image --><!-- BEGIN: Module - M24 Article Headline with no image (a) --><!-- getting the section url from article. This has been done so that correct url isgenerated if we are coming from a section or topic --><!-- Print Author name associated with the article --><!-- Print Author name from By Line associated with the article -->Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor


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A local veterinary surgeon was called to Eastwood Farm in the village of Shenington, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, after an increase of mortality in hens in one 3,000-bird shed.
The birds were treated with antibiotics. The owner however raised the alarm on Monday when 10 per cent of his 25,000 flock were found dead. Only then was avian flu suspected.
Government vets are now urgently checking poultry in the neighbourbhood to ascertain whether the disease has already spread to other farms.
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<!-- END: Module - M63 - Article Related Attachements --><!-- Call Wide Article Attachment Module --><!--TEMPLATE:call file="wideArticleAttachment.jsp" /-->Veterinary epidemiologists are also tracing all movements of vehicles, people, eggs and birds on and off the farm in the past month to identify the source of the disease.
The most likely theory, owever is that the avian flu virus, identified today as the highly pathogenic H7 strain, was brought on to the farm by an infected wild bird.
The cull of the rest of the birds is now under way.
The risks of H7 to human health are low, unlike the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus. However there have been cases in Britain where farm workers have suffered conjunctivitis and flu-like symptoms.
A 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone is in place around the infected premises. Checks are being made on all other poultry farms in the area and keepers have been asked to remain vigilant.
All bird movements and bird gatherings such as markets are banned.
There have been three other cases of H7 avian flu in the UK, on farms in St Helens on Merseyside and near Corwen, north Wales early last summer and in Dereham, Norfolk in May 2006.
The last outbreak of H5N1 in the UK was in wild swans at the Abbotsbury nature reserve in Dorset in the New Year. This popular tourist attraction near Chesil Beach is now open for visitors once more.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4066462.ece

[JJackson]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

I know this is all covered elsewhere on the site but as a reminder and for newcomers.

HP & LP technically refers to genetic structure but for our purposes denotes virulence in poultry.
It says little about either ease of transmission or virulence in humans.
Seasonal human flus are LP.
H5N1 comes in both types (as do H7Nx). The H5N1 that has been causing human deaths is HP. In humans H7Nx (inc. the HP form) is normally associated with fairly mild eye infections but has caused more typical ‘flu like illness’ and one death. H7s have generally also shown more human-to-human transmission ability than H5N1 (thankfully).

PS Many of the journalists (especially those working for local papers) know very little about this area and will make errors (please bear with them). Some in authority - who should know better - are making re-assuring statements which often fall in the wishful thinking catagory and are being quoted by the journalists.

[HenryN]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

I know this is all covered elsewhere on the site but as a reminder and for newcomers.

HP & LP technically refers to genetic structure but for our purposes denotes virulence in poultry.
It says little about either ease of transmission or virulence in humans.
Seasonal human flus are LP.
H5N1 comes in both types (as do H7Nx). The H5N1 that has been causing human deaths is HP. In humans H7Nx (inc. the HP form) is normally associated with fairly mild eye infections but has caused more typical ?flu like illness? and one death. H7s have generally also show more human-to-human transmission ability than H5N1 (thankfully).

H7N7 was VERY efficiently transmitted H2H

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01060503/Efficient_H7N7.html

Efficient Human to Human Transmission of H7N7 Bird Flu

Recombinomics Commentary
January 6, 2005

>>As at least 50 percent of the people exposed to infected poultry had H7 antibodies detectable with the modified assay, it was estimated that avian influenza A/H7N7 virus infection occurred in at least 1000, and perhaps as many as 2000 people. The seroprevalence of H7 antibodies in people without contact with infected poultry, but with close household contact to an infected poultry worker, was 59 percent. This suggests that the population at risk for avian influenza was not limited to those with direct contact to infected poultry, and that person-to-person transmission may have occurred on a large scale.<<

[JJackson]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

H7N7 was VERY efficiently transmitted H2H

Yes I agree but I was trying to keep it general for H7s and as your post shows these were mainly mild but the same outbreak was responsible for the fatality (a Vet.)

Free-range chickens on the farm at the centre of the latest avian flu alert have been infected with the disease for three weeks, The Times has learnt.
A local veterinary surgeon was called to Eastwood Farm in the village of Shenington, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, after an increase of mortality in hens in one 3,000-bird shed.
The birds were treated with antibiotics. The owner however raised the alarm on Monday when 10 per cent of his 25,000 flock were found dead.

What do you make of this? Looks like BC again with an LP infection acquiring mutations to the cleavage site to go HP. I would love to see the before and after sequences (but shall not be holding my breath).

[cartski]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

So the worrisome situations are:

H5 acquiring the ease of transmission capabilities of H7;

H7 acquirng the mortality capability of H5 (although I believe there was some discussion that showed that this is impossible).

And the questions is how easily, genetically, could either of these situations arise.

J.

[Giuseppe]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

Yes I agree but I was trying to keep it general for H7s and as your post shows these were mainly mild but the same outbreak was responsible for the fatality (a Vet.)


What do you make of this? Looks like BC again with an LP infection acquiring mutations to the cleavage site to go HP. I would love to see the before and after sequences (but shall not be holding my breath).

It is widely circulation of these viruses that may be alarming: I posted updates for Italy at several times, and A/H7 (N1 or N3) were always involved. The last situation update from IZSVE (OIE Reference Laboratory in Padua) told about an epizootic by A/H7N3 in a poultry seller, earlier this year. Notably, no media coverage for these events.
Clearly, a chain of transmission is maintaned either via fomites or migratory birds, or movement of animals across EU.

[HenryN]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/06040802/H7_UK_Transmission.html

[Giuseppe]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

One should remember that these event AREN'T ISOLATE ONE.

Persistence of A/H7 in animal population across European countries cannot be discounted, thus human exposure to H7 subtype may be wider than expected but no major outbreaks happened so far.

I think that spotted focused attention paid by agricultural watchdogs to these issues do not preclude a better human epidemiological evaluation, including the lack of H7 isolation during seasonal human influenza surveillance.

[HenryN]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

One should remember that these event AREN'T ISOLATE ONE.

Persistence of A/H7 in animal population across European countries cannot be discounted, thus human exposure to H7 subtype may be wider than expected but no major outbreaks happened so far.

I think that spotted focused attention paid by agricultural watchdogs to these issues do not preclude a better human epidemiological evaluation, including the lack of H7 isolation during seasonal human influenza surveillance.

Most of the human H7 has been linked to eye infections, which are not tested for influenza.

[gsgs]

Re: New case of H7 bird flu in Oxfordshire

no pandemic/epidemic despite much exposure - that's good news.
See H5N1.
The virus might not be capable of sustained h2h.

H7 in poultry was reported back to the 1870s, but no human H7-epidemic
ever.