Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Few positives tests in poultry and pigs beg the question: Where is H7N9 flu?
By Helen Branswell, The Canadian PressApril 18, 2013
As China struggles to find the source of the new flu infecting a growing number of its citizens, tests of the usual animal suspects are mostly coming back negative. No pigs and few poultry have so far tested positive for H7N9.
...
"Something is happening out there that's not being picked up," says Gregory Hartl, spokesperson for the World Health Organization in Geneva.
"It argues for the fact that we have to continue to cast the investigation net widely."
China's Ministry of Agriculture revealed Wednesday that nearly 48,000 tests samples have been taken from live animal markets, farms and slaughter houses across China.
Of those, a mere 39 tested positive: 38 in poultry from markets in the eastern Chinese provinces where most of the human cases have been found and one in a wild pigeon, in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu.
Those findings beg the questions: Where is this bird flu hiding? And is China targeting the right species when it goes looking for H7N9?
More...
http://www.canada.com/health/positives+tests+poultry+pigs+question+Where+H7N9/8258923/story.html
By Helen Branswell, The Canadian PressApril 18, 2013
As China struggles to find the source of the new flu infecting a growing number of its citizens, tests of the usual animal suspects are mostly coming back negative. No pigs and few poultry have so far tested positive for H7N9.
...
"Something is happening out there that's not being picked up," says Gregory Hartl, spokesperson for the World Health Organization in Geneva.
"It argues for the fact that we have to continue to cast the investigation net widely."
China's Ministry of Agriculture revealed Wednesday that nearly 48,000 tests samples have been taken from live animal markets, farms and slaughter houses across China.
Of those, a mere 39 tested positive: 38 in poultry from markets in the eastern Chinese provinces where most of the human cases have been found and one in a wild pigeon, in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu.
Those findings beg the questions: Where is this bird flu hiding? And is China targeting the right species when it goes looking for H7N9?
More...
http://www.canada.com/health/positives+tests+poultry+pigs+question+Where+H7N9/8258923/story.html