Myanmar (Burma) reports new bird flu cases

[Gert van der Hoek]

Outbreak: Myanmar reports new bird flu cases

July 29 2007 at 12:40PM

Yangon - Myanmar has detected a fresh outbreak of bird flu on two poultry farms south of the capital Yangon, state media said on Sunday.

Authorities confirmed on Tuesday that dead chickens at the farms in Mon state, about 300 kilometres south of Yangon, had been infected with the H5N1 virus, the official Mirror newspaper said.

Animal health officials killed about 300 chickens on the two farms, the paper said, quoting Myanmar's livestock breeding and veterinary department.

It was the first fresh bird flu outbreak since June, but Myanmar so far has not reported any human cases of avian influenza. About 660 000 birds were slaughtered last year to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

As of last week, the World Health Organisation had recorded 319 cases of bird flu in humans worldwide, 192 of which were fatal.

Experts fear the death toll could rise sharply if the virus were to mutate and become easily transmissible between humans. - Sapa-AFP

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=nw20070729111306184C458709

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Myanmar (Burma) reports new bird flu cases

Myanmar takes measure against fresh bird flu outbreak

July 30, 2007

Myanmar livestock authorities have taken measures to deal with a fresh bird flu outbreak in the country's southeastern Mon state early this week, sources with the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) said on Sunday.

The measures included culling of over 300 chickens in two poultry farms where H5N1 virus was found.

Local related departments are cooperating in containing the fresh disease against further spreading to 65 other farms nearby where 40,000 chickens are still in good and normal status, the LBVD said.

According to the LBVD, two poultry farms in Thanphyuzayat of the state reported chickens dying abnormally on Tuesday and after a series of testing for days, it was identified with H5N1.

The renewed outbreak of H5N1 in the Mon state came a month after four new cases occurred at farms in three townships of Hmawby, Insein and Bago in June. The residual virus was found during the post-outbreak surveillance period which ran from May 7 to June 9, earlier reports said, adding that during that period, a total of nearly 2,000 chickens were culled for risk prevention.

Bird flu, which broke out in five townships in Yangon over the period from Feb. 28 to March 31 this year, was claimed to have been contained and restrictions on transport and sale of chickens, ducks, quills and their products in those areas were lifted on April 22.

According to official statistics, during the bird flu outbreak period, nearly 2,000 fowls died of the virus with 65,812 poultry from the affected farms and those nearby were culled.

In the fight against the disease, Myanmar has been cooperating with experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and USAID.


According to the Myanmar authorities, no human cases have so far been detected with bird flu virus in the country.

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