BMJ - Hunting down the H5N1 virus

[Snowy Owl]

BMJ 2007;334:342-343 (17 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39126.577488.59
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Observations

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THE WEEK IN MEDICINE

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Hunting down the H5N1 virus

Rebecca Coombes, journalist​

London

The avian influenza outbreak in Suffolk has cast an uneasy lighton the public health risks of modern poultry production practices​

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What is the root cause of the outbreak?

Although the infected processing plant reopened last week, governmentinvestigators are still trying to root out the cause of H5N1virus outbreak in Suffolk, which led to the culling of 160 000birds earlier this month.
Initially, the finger of blame had pointed to the infected droppingsof migrating wild birds. There had been an outbreak of H5N1among captive geese in the Csongr?d region of Hungaryin January, but there was no obvious link to the outbreak atthe Holton farm, which is owned by UK poultry tycoon BernardMatthews.
By the eighth day of the outbreak, genetic tests confirmed thatthe Suffolk virus was the same pathogenic Asian strain foundin Hungary. That in itself didn't prove that there was a directlink; the infection still may have come from a third country.But it had also become clear that Matthews not only had a processingplant in <nobr>. . .</nobr> [Full text of this article]
Is H5N1 in the human food chain?

Media reaction

What next?