Low path H5N1 virus found in NZ ducks

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Low path H5N1 virus found in NZ ducks

City ducks testing positive for bird flu not a worry: MAF

By SAM McKNIGHT - The Southland Times | Thursday, 18 September 2008

Two mallard ducks in Invercargill have tested positive for bird flu, but the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry says it is a low-pathenogenic strain that does not pose a risk to humans.

MAF Biosecurity New Zealand animal response team manager Dr Andre van Halderen said it was the first time the low-pathogenicity avian influenza H5N1 strain had been recorded in New Zealand.

He stressed it should not be mistaken for the highly pathenogenic (HPAI) H5N1 virus that spread throughout parts of Asia, Europe and Africa, killing more than 200 people and forcing the destruction of millions of birds.

Two ducks were found to have the virus, one at an estuary 2km west of the city and one at Roslyn Bush, following a surveillance programme in February that tested six other sites throughout the country.

The findings were confirmed this week.

Invercargill was the only site with infected ducks.

Dr van Halderen said the nature of the virus meant it was impossible it could cross-species jump into humans and mutation was "highly unlikely" .

"The low pathenogenic avian influenza viruses are adapted to waterfowl and shorebirds, which are their natural hosts.

"The risk of HPAI `bird flu' reaching New Zealand is unchanged and remains low. This finding does not affect New Zealand's avian influenza disease-free status, and poultry consumers have no cause for concern."

Tests indicated the virus might have been in New Zealand for some time and could even be endemic, he said.

Dr van Halderen said the ducks were healthy and were not killed as a result of infection.

There was an expectation increased surveillance would find the virus elsewhere, he said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/southlandtimes/4696485a6011.html

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Low path H5N1 virus found in NZ ducks

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/09170801/H5N1_New_Zealand.html

Commentary

H5N1 in Migratory Birds in New Zealand
Recombinomics Commentary 19:29
September 19, 2008

A surveillance programme researching the presence of avian influenza in New Zealand has found low pathogenic (LPAI) H5N1 virus in two samples taken from mallard ducks. Tests indicate that the virus is closely related to viruses found in the past and has been here for some time.

Sampling of healthy wild birds took place at seven locations across New Zealand in February this year, as part of MAFBNZ's ongoing avian influenza surveillance programme. A total of 1241 samples were collected from mostly mallard ducks and some migratory bird species in Paparoa, the mouth of Kaituna River, Lake Aniwhenua, Reparoa, Napier, Temuka and Invercargill.

The above comments describe the detection of low path H5N1 in New Zealand. These data are similar to data reported for Canada in 2005, when H5N1 was detected across southern Canada in young mallards. The result was followed by increased surveillance in North America, which led to more H5 positives the United States and Canada.

These assays however lack sensitivity, especially for high path H5N1. Beginning in the spring of 2005, high path H5N1 was widely distributed by migratory birds. Prior to 2005, all reported cases of the “Asian” versions of H5N1 were limited to China and countries to the east. However, the expansion that began in 2005 lead to reports of clade 2.2 H5N1 in over 50 countries west of China.

Recent outbreaks in South Korea, Japan, and southeastern Russia have signaled a wild bird expansion of another H5N1 sub-clade, which has a clade 2.3.2 HA and clade 2.3.4 for the other 7 gene segments.

Several full sequences, including those from two recent isolates from Aomori have been published. The sequences from multiple locations in northern Japan and southeastern Russia are virtually identical. Reports from South Korea suggest those isolates are also more than 99.7 identical to these sequences.

Monitoring of the newly acquired polymorphisms in these sequences identifies multiple locations in the East Asian flyway, stretching from Australia and New Zealand in the south, to Alaska and the rest of North America to the north. Included were a number of polymorphisms in PB1, which were recently published from Korean swine, which had many clear examples of homologous recombination, including the PB1 gene. In the swine the PB1 gene was human and it had recombined with avian sequences from low path wild birds or clade 2.2 H5N1.

The PB1 gene in the clade 2.3.2 sequences had a large number of polymorphisms from H3 isolates from New Zealand and Australia (seelist here or here) raising concerns that the PB1 in the H5N1 was also acquiring polymorphisms from human serotypes.

These data highlight the importance of monitoring these acquisitions and expanding the wild bird database in New Zealand and Australia, including the recently described H5N1 isolates.


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[Giuseppe]

Re: Low path H5N1 virus found in NZ ducks

CIDRAP >> Togo confirms H5N1 caused poultry outbreak

Togo confirms H5N1 caused poultry outbreak

Lisa Schnirring * Staff Writer

Sep 17, 2008 (CIDRAP News) ?

Agriculture officials in Togo today confirmed that the H5N1 avian influenza virus was responsible for suspicious poultry deaths that had recently been reported in a village in the southern part of the country.


Kossi Messan Ewovor, Togo's agriculture and livestock minister, said in a statement that tests in Ghana on samples from the birds were positive for the H5N1 virus, according to a report from Reuters.

The outbreak was initially reported by media outlets on Sep 9.

The outbreak site is a poultry farm in the village of Agbata, near Lome, the capital, according to previous reports.

The farm reportedly had about 4,800 birds.

The minister's statement said about 4,000 poultry died, but it's not clear if animal health officials culled any of the birds.

Togo's last H5N1 outbreaks occurred in June 2007 at poultry farms in the southern part of the country, according to reports from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Those outbreaks were the first to be confirmed in Togo.

In other developments, agriculture authorities in New Zealand said today that low-pathogenic avian influenza has been detected in wild mallard ducks, according to a report from the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA).

The H5 strain was identified during surveillance of healthy birds at seven sites in New Zealand, the story said .

The surveillance took place in February and involved sampling 1,241 birds.

Andre van Halderen, an official with New Zealand's agriculture and forestry ministry, said the virus that was identified in the ducks is closely related to viruses that have been found in the past and aren't new to the country.

Since 1975 more than 5,000 wild birds have been sampled in New Zealand, of which a small number tested positive for low-pathogenic H5 or H7 subtypes, the NZPA report said.

New Zealand has never reported a case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in birds, according to the report.

Findings in New Zealand's wild birds are similar to those in the United States.

An update today from the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Early Detection Data System (HEDDS), representing wild-bird surveillance by federal and state agencies, says 27,231 birds have been sampled this year. Eight samples tested positive for presumed low-pathogenic avian influenza. Confirmatory tests revealed that one of the eight viruses was H2N9; testing is underway to confirm the subtype of the seven others.


​

<cite cite="http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/sep1708birds.html">CIDRAP >> Togo confirms H5N1 caused poultry outbreak</cite>

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Low path H5N1 virus found in NZ ducks

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2368583.htm

NZ bird flu shock should worry Australia: scientist

PM - Thursday, 18 September , 2008 18:46:00
Reporter: Jeff Waters

MARK COLVIN: In a shock to the New Zealand poultry industry, two wild ducks on the South Island have tested positive for H5N1 bird flu.

The birds were discovered still alive near the southern city of Invercargill.

They were detected in routine tests conducted by Biosecurity New Zealand.

But the authority is moving fast to reassure farmers and the community that there's no immediate health risk.

Not all experts agree, and as Jeff Waters reports, one Australian scientist says a similar strain is likely to be present in Australia as well.

JEFF WATERS: It's something many scientists have been expecting.

A form of H5N1 bird flu has been discovered in Australasia; though, strangely enough, not in Australia's far north, but in the far south of New Zealand.

A highly pathogenic strain of the disease has not only killed 245 people worldwide; more than a hundred of them in Indonesia, it's forced the destruction of millions of domestic chickens and ducks in Asia, Europe and Africa.

But New Zealand authorities are playing down this latest discovery, saying the strain they've uncovered is difficult to spread.

Dr Andre van Halderen is the response team manager for Biosecurity New Zealand.

ANDRE VAN HALDEREN: What we found as part of a routine surveillance of our water fowl, which is two low pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses. So it's not the bird flu virus that's circulating in Asia.

JEFF WATERS: Does it pose a risk to the New Zealand poultry industry?

ANDRE VAN HALDEREN: No it doesn't because it's a low pathogenic one. We obviously have reiterated to poultry produces that it's good sense to maintain standard bio-security practice, but certainly it's an insignificant risk.

JEFF WATERS: So you're saying these birds didn't come from Asia?

ANDRE VAN HALDEREN: No not at all. These are mallard ducks, they're non-migratory. It's a finding that's not unexpected and we're bound to find more.

JEFF WATERS: Are you just trying to play this down?

ANDRE VAN HALDEREN: No not at all. As I say avian influenza viruses occur in many, many wild birds. There's a negligible risk of it firstly getting into birds and because it's low path, it causes very mild or no clinical disease in domestic poultry. And it's only through mutation into highly pathogenic strains that you will get strains arising which cause problems.

JEFF WATERS: But not everyone agrees that the bird flu strain discovered in New Zealand is entirely benign.

Professor Greg Tannock has been studying bird flu at the MacFarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health in Melbourne.

He says that, not only is it possible that this disease may mutate but that H5N1 is likely to be already present in Australia.

GREG TANNOCK: It's something to be concerned about in an epidemiological sense; in other words to keep an eye on it, to keep track on any changes that might be taking place.

JEFF WATERS: Could it pose a threat to the New Zealand poultry industry?

GREG TANNOCK: In theory it could if the virus undergoes change. If it mutates from low pathogenic to high pathogenic. It's probably present in many more estuarine situations than have been detected so far.

JEFF WATERS: So are you saying it's probably present in Australia?

GREG TANNOCK: It may well be, although people have looked for it and haven't found it. But you can't really rule these things out because we've had avian influenza, not of the H5N1 type before in water birds and also in poultry. If people looked hard enough then they will find it.

MARK COLVIN: Professor Greg Tannock, from the MacFarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health, ending that Jeff Waters' report.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Low path H5N1 virus found in NZ ducks

NZ bird flu could mutate, become more serious
19-Sep 20:17

An Australian researcher says it is theoretically possible that the low-grade bird flu virus detected in wild mallard ducks in New Zealand could mutate into a more serious form of the virus.

Professor Gregor Tannock told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the virus could pose a threat to New Zealand poultry "if it mutates from low pathogenic to high pathogenic".

Prof Tannock, who is studying bird flu at the MacFarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health in Melbourne, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the virus was probably present in many more estuaries than those where it was found.

Both the infected ducks were found near Invercargill, one at an estuary 2km west of the city and one at Roslyn Bush, following a surveillance programme in February that tested six other sites throughout the country. Invercargill was the only site with infected ducks when the findings were confirmed this week. Now Australian poultry owners are being warned to step up their own biosecurity checks in the wake of the discovery.

Australian poultry owners should ensure wild waterbirds cannot access poultry feed or water and should limit contact between wild waterbirds and poultry, Biosecurity Queensland's chief veterinary officer Ron Glanville told AAP.

"This is just a commonsense, precautionary measure," Dr Glanville said.

Biosecurity New Zealand team manager Andre van Halderen said the Southland ducks were the first time that low-pathogenicity avian influenza H5N1 strain had been recorded in New Zealand.

He stressed it should not be mistaken for the highly pathenogenic (HPAI) H5N1 virus that spread throughout parts of Asia, Europe and Africa, killing more than 200 people and forcing the destruction of millions of birds.

Dr van Halderen said the nature of the virus meant it was impossible it could cross-species jump into humans and mutation was "highly unlikely".

"There's a negligible risk of it firstly getting into birds and because it's `low-path': it causes very mild or no clinical disease in domestic poultry.

"It's only through mutation into highly pathogenic strains that you will get strains arising which cause problems.

"The low pathenogenic avian influenza viruses are adapted to waterfowl and shorebirds, which are their natural hosts."

http://www.3news.co.nz/News/Nationa...tabid/423/articleID/72365/cat/64/Default.aspx

 

[Giuseppe]

Re: Low path H5N1 virus found in NZ ducks

It is important at this joint to elucidate the phylogenetics of these lpai H5N1 isolates in order to establish the ''travel history'' and possibly their link with other lpai or hpai subtypes that circulate in Asia, Africa and Europe.

Internal proteins sequences would be also of great importance for a more detailed risks' assessment either for domesticated poultry and humans.

It isn't need to say that further veterinary surveillance for these lpai viruses possible spill-over into autoctonous domesticate poultry stocks is anticipated.

 

[HenryN]

Re: Low path H5N1 virus found in NZ ducks

It is important at this joint to elucidate the phylogenetics of these lpai H5N1 isolates in order to establish the ''travel history'' and possibly their link with other lpai or hpai subtypes that circulate in Asia, Africa and Europe.

Internal proteins sequences would be also of great importance for a more detailed risks' assessment either for domesticated poultry and humans.

It isn't need to say that further veterinary surveillance for these lpai viruses possible spill-over into autoctonous domesticate poultry stocks is anticipated.

Yes, the LPAI contribute to the genetic diversity of HPAI and help define distribution routes.