Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

[sharon sanders]

No bird flu in the wildlife of Saudi Arabia says government -





Emphasizes wildlife free of bird flu Kingdom

كتب - صالح الحميدي:​

BOOKS - Saleh Al-Humaidi:

أوضح التقرير النهائي لمشروع الدراسة المسحية لأهم مناطق تجمعات الطيور الفطرية في المملكة التي قامت بها الهيئة الوطنية لحماية الحياة الفطرية وإنمائها خلو العينات من فيروس مرض انفلونزا الطيور.​

The draft final report of the survey of the main areas of fungal bird gatherings in the kingdom by the National Authority for the protection of wildlife and development of free samples of the bird flu virus.

وكانت الهيئة قد أعدت خطة عمل لجمع عينات الطيور البرية المهاجرة انفاذاً لتوصيات اللجنة الوطنية لمواجهة خطر مرض انفلونزا الطيور.​

The Board has prepared an action plan to collect samples of wild birds migrating giving effect to the recommendations of the National Committee to counter the threat of bird flu.

وقد تمت الدراسة من 11/13حتى 1478/12/4ه.​

Has been the study of e 1478/12/4 until 11/13.

وشارك في الدراسة أربعة عشر باحثاً من الهيئة، وتركزت المسوحات في مناطق تجمع الطيور المائية والأراضي الرطبة التي تعد بيئة ملائمة لاستراحة الطيور المهاجرة والمقيمة.​

Participated in the study fourteen researchers from the body, and focused surveys in areas where water birds and wetlands that are a suitable environment to break migratory and resident birds.

وقد سجلت الدراسة وجود بعض أنواع الطيور المائية خاصة البط ودجاج الماء والبلشونات والنوارس والنعام الكبير والغاق والغر وأبو قدران والغطاس وأبو مغزل والزقزاق وقنبرة الماء والمدروان والدريجة وأبو منجل الأسود اللامع وأبو ملعقة والواق وآكل المحار والطيطوي وبعض الطيور الجارحة مثل الحدأة والعقاب الأبقع.​

The study recorded the presence of some types of aquatic birds, especially ducks, chickens and water and Albulchunat Gulls and ostriches large and Cormorant and Algr and Abu building and diver and Abu spindle and Plover and Turnstone and Almadroan, progressive and Ibis Black illustrious and Abu spoon and Bulwark and eating shellfish and Sandpiper and some birds of prey such as units and punishment obstacles.

وغطت المسوحات منطقة الحائر بالرياض وسبخة الفصل بالجبيل وخليج تاروت بالقطيف وبحيرة الأصفر بالأحساء وبحيرة دومة الجندل بالجوف وبحيرة الرايس بتبوك والسواحل الطينية جنوب جدة وسد وادي جازان.​

The surveys covered the area confuses sabkha chapter in Riyadh and Jubail and the Gulf of Tarot Katif and the Yellow King Lake and Lake Domat Jandal groundwater and Lake Rice wrote and South Coast mud and filling Jeddah Jizan Valley.

وتمكن فريق العمل من جمع 321عينة تم إرسالها إلى مختبر التشخيص البيطري بالرياض التابع لوزارة الزراعة وقد جاءت جميع نتائج العينة سلبية لاختبارات الحمض النووي لفيروس مرض انفلونزا الطيور.​

The team was able to collect 321 samples have been sent to the veterinary diagnostic laboratory in Riyadh belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture has come all the negative results of the sample for DNA testing for the bird flu virus.

وأوصى التقرير بأهمية إجراء المسح ثلاث مرات خلال العام ووضع خطة طوارئ وتأمين الأجهزة والأدوات والمعدات اللازمة وتوعية كافة شرائح المجتمع عن المرض وتأكيد منع دخول الطيور الفطرية إلى المملكة إلا من خلال الطرائق الشرعية من استمرار حظر صيد الطيور المهاجرة هذا العام لحين زوال خطر المرض من الدول المجاورة التي تقع بمسارات الهجرة الرئيسة.​

The report recommended the importance of the survey three times during the year and develop a contingency plan and securing devices, tools and equipment needed and educate all segments of society about the disease and prevent its entry to the Kingdom of bird fungal only through legitimate methods of the continuing ban hunting migratory birds this year until the demise of risk of disease from neighboring countries Which is the major migratory routes.

وكانت الهيئة قد أقامت ورشة عمل قبيل بدء عملية المسح الميداني للمرض بعنوان "نحن وانفلونزا الطيور: نحو برنامج وطني لمتابعة الفيروس في الطيور الفطرية" تناولت الورشة تاريخ المرض والوضع الراهن لوبائيات المرض حول العالم والتدابير الاحترازية الدولية والوطنية لاحتواء الفيروس والطرائق والأساليب الوقائية الصحيحة والسليمة التي جب اتباعها للتعامل مع الفيروس خلال عملية جمع العينات.​

The Board has established a workshop prior to the commencement of a field survey of the disease entitled "We and avian influenza: a national programme to pursue the virus in birds instinctive" workshop dealt with the history of the disease and the current situation of the epidemiology of the disease around the world and precautionary measures of international and national levels to contain the virus, methods and techniques of preventive correct and sound Jeb Followed to deal with the virus during the process of collecting samples.​

http://www.alriyadh.com/2008/05/04/article339909.html

 

[HenryN]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

321 samples simply show that the understanding of detection of H5N1 in live wild birds needs some work. Conservation groups have collected 350,000 fecal samples from wild birds and concluded H5N1 wasn't in wild birds in Europe. This conclusing was presented by Ilaria Capua in Toronto in June, 2007. Within minutes of the conclusion of her talk, the Czech Republic reported H5N1 at a farm. Within days, H5N1 was reported in wild birds in the Czech Republic, Germany, and France. All were the Uvs Lake strain, which linked to a massive wild bird outbreak in Mongolia, which was subsequently found in a massive outbreak in Kuwat in early 2007.

Reports of negative data in ill conceived surveillance plans says much more about the planners than the wild birds.

 

[mixin]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

Reports of negative data in ill conceived surveillance plans says much more about the planners than the wild birds.

So when you see this type of report http://www.gains.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx, do you accept the results?

In South Africa, 1550 birds have been captured to date over the course of 16 sampling surveys in five locations; many of the birds were sampled at three sites visited regularly: Strandfontein, Barberspan, and the Manyame catchment. Preliminary sampling was conducted at Rietvlei, a wetland near Strandfontein. In Mozambique, field sampling trips were made to Lake Chuali and Massingir Dam, and in Botswana fieldwork in Lake Ngami was undertaken.
? One Egyptian Goose captured in South Africa tested positive for low pathogenic H1N8.
? 224 hours of observations have been conducted.
? 2255 blood samples have been collected (two per bird); 2655 cloacal samples (two per bird); 1468 feather samples; and 2655 tracheal samples (two per bird).? 72 different species have been sampled; 18 of those have been captured 10 or more times. Most common captures are the two ducks the team identified as the highest risk species, red-billed teal and Egyptian geese. In the upcoming Austral summer bird numbers and captures (particularly of palearctic migrants and molting ducks) will likely increase.

 

[HenryN]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

So when you see this type of report http://www.gains.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx, do you accept the results?

In South Africa, 1550 birds have been captured to date over the course of 16 sampling surveys in five locations; many of the birds were sampled at three sites visited regularly: Strandfontein, Barberspan, and the Manyame catchment. Preliminary sampling was conducted at Rietvlei, a wetland near Strandfontein. In Mozambique, field sampling trips were made to Lake Chuali and Massingir Dam, and in Botswana fieldwork in Lake Ngami was undertaken.
? One Egyptian Goose captured in South Africa tested positive for low pathogenic H1N8.
? 224 hours of observations have been conducted.
? 2255 blood samples have been collected (two per bird); 2655 cloacal samples (two per bird); 1468 feather samples; and 2655 tracheal samples (two per bird).? 72 different species have been sampled; 18 of those have been captured 10 or more times. Most common captures are the two ducks the team identified as the highest risk species, red-billed teal and Egyptian geese. In the upcoming Austral summer bird numbers and captures (particularly of palearctic migrants and molting ducks) will likely increase.

I accept the result that the above data is pure propaganda (at best). Detecting low path avian influenza in Egypt is a pretty trivial task. Egypt has a program that ROUTINELY detects low path in a relatively high percentage of samples. Finding ONE positive clearly shows that the methodology used in the above survey is FATALLY flawed.

 

[mixin]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

Ok, so if you could design a testing program, what would it be?

 

[gsgs]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

I found this at mixin's link, which I think should be copied here:



Through GAINS, tens of thousands of samples have been collected for H5N1 analysis and census data from nearly 105 million bird observations are being made available via an open database and mapping system(http://www.GAINS.org).


GAINS met with Dr. Chairul Anwar Nidom, MS, DVM, Airlangga University College of Veterinary Medicine, West Java to introduce him to the GAINS Indonesia team and workplan. Dr. Nidom has been involved since 2005 on H5N1 and domestic poultry, and collaborates with Kobe University in Japan on gene sequencing of H5N1 strains found within Indonesia. The Japanese Society for Promoting Sciences (JSPS) is now supporting a six-million dollar Collaborative Research Center for Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (CRC-ERID) at Airlangga University, including a Bio-Safety Level 3 laboratory, with Dr. Nidom?s involvement in animal health aspects. The new laboratory will be on par with the AI laboratory in Hong Kong, which has been the Indonesian government?s primary bird flu referral laboratory. GAINS will continue toprovide wild bird AI surveillance field reports to Dr. Nidom and the CRC-ERID.

University of Georgia. GAINS has signed a contract with Dr. David Stallknecht and Dr. Justin Brown of the University of Georgia to jointly test wild bird serumsamples for H5N1 antibodies. Despite ongoing analysis around the world, there are no avian influenza serum tests that are validated for use in wild birds. However IDEXX has recently created a new ELISA test that is expected to be highly sensitive in wild birds. This test is not currently commercially available. IDEXX has donated hundreds of testing kits to the University of Georgia for the testing of GAINS wild bird samples from around the globe. The goal of this testing will be to help identify wild bird species that may be carriers (individuals that intermittently shed virus but do not show signs of illness) or previously exposed to H5N1, and to assist in validation of a serum test for wild birds.

? Princeton University. The large scale geographic and ecological information being collected by GAINS and its partners needs to be combined with information on the aetiology of infection with H5N1 for the different potential host species. All of this information will be used in a differential equation transmission model to examine potential temporal and spatial patterns in the spread of avian influenza from initial outbreaks in different host species at specific geographical locations. This will help in the understanding of why past oubreaks have occured in certain species, at certain locations, at certain times, and will thus aid in prediction offuture potential outbreaks. We have assembled a group of ecologists and wildlife disease experts to elucidate different aspects of this problem: o Dr. Andy Dobson of Princeton University will coordinate the overall effort and develop the mathematical models. o Walter Jetz (UC San Diego) will provide information on the spatial distribution of the different bird species and quantify the degree of range overlap between different species o Leslie Reperant (Princeton & Erasmus) and Thijs Kuiken (Erasmus) will quantify the susceptibility and rate of viral production of H5N1 in the major families of bird species. o Andre Dhondt (Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University) and Peter Hudson (Penn State University) will collate and quantify information on habitat use and niche overlap in waterfowl. 30
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[HenryN]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

Ok, so if you could design a testing program, what would it be?

Please. The are 1000's of ways to generate fales negatives. Any group that can't find low path in wild birds should be doing something else.

 

[HenryN]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

Ok, so if you could design a testing program, what would it be?

Here's an anology. If a high patrol officer who is assigned to monitoring an Interstate for speeder issues zero tickets for the day, you could assume that one or more of the following is probably true.

The officer doesn't know how to chose the right location, (s)he slept through all or most of the shift. (s)he doesn't like giving out speeding tickets, there were no speeders.

If the officer gives out 1 ticket in a month, you can pretty much rule out the last possibility.

You just showed a report equal to one speeder for the month.

What would you do about it? (The month earlier the same stretch of highway was monitored by another officer who issued 2 tickets an hour - 300 tickets for the month).

 

[mixin]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

I asked:

Ok, so if you could design a testing program, what would it be?

You answered with:

Please. The are 1000's of ways to generate fales negatives. Any group that can't find low path in wild birds should be doing something else.

You answered my question with a non-answer. So let's try this again.

What you think the testing groups ought to do?

If all tests were tracheal, would you accept the findings?
Should they test migratory birds upon arrival, upon departure or during their stay.. or all of the above?
Should they concentrate their efforts on a large variety of birds or only a few?

 

[HenryN]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

I asked:
You answered with:


You answered my question with a non-answer. So let's try this again.

What you think the testing groups ought to do?

If all tests were tracheal, would you accept the findings?
Should they test migratory birds upon arrival, upon departure or during their stay.. or all of the above?
Should they concentrate their efforts on a large variety of birds or only a few?

A&A (MANY times)

 

[HenryN]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

I asked:
You answered with:


You answered my question with a non-answer. So let's try this again.

What you think the testing groups ought to do?

If all tests were tracheal, would you accept the findings?
Should they test migratory birds upon arrival, upon departure or during their stay.. or all of the above?
Should they concentrate their efforts on a large variety of birds or only a few?

This is well into silly season, where it has been since 2005. If the foxes are guiarding the hen houses, the hens will be eaten, with or without the little fence. Almost ANYONE can generate false negatives, regardless of what is being tested.

 

[mixin]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

I'm not concerned with finding false negatives.

I'm asking you how testing should be done to get true results.

If this has been answered many times, I've missed it.

Just to clarify: Pretend you are doing the testing.

 

[HenryN]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

I'm not concerned with finding false negatives.

I'm asking you how testing should be done to get true results.

If this has been answered many times, I've missed it.

Please.

 

[mixin]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

Ok, it's obvious you aren't going to answer... so I'll go look some more. Had I *seen* this answered many times, I truly wouldn't be asking.

I suspect I probably know the answer so I'll not continue this line of questioning.:surrender:

 

[HenryN]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

Ok, it's obvious you aren't going to answer... so I'll go look some more. Had I *seen* this answered many times, I truly wouldn't be asking.

I suspect I probably know the answer so I'll not continue this line of questioning.:surrender:

This is a very OLD story and I have posted on it MANY times. Some groups have been able to detect clade 2.2 (Qinghai) H5N1 in wild birds. Russia did it in the summer of 2005 with hunter killed birds. NAMRU-3 had to work hard to get a sequence out of the healthy teal in late 2005 in the Nile Delta. In late 2006 South Korea identified a few positives with environmental samples. Out of the 414 fecal isolates published by Hong Kong, one was Qinghai.

The bottom line is that it can be done, but takes some effort by groups looking for positives. Groups looking for negatives can EASILY generate 100's of thousands of negatives.

This is an old issue, which really won't chnage by asking me the same questions again and again.

Its like asking why one one ticket was given and how to catch speeders. Mothods for catching speeders are well known, and have been known for many years.

 

[mixin]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

You are right that this is an old issue and you have posted your opinion on ineffective testing so many times I almost know your response by heart.

I just don't think I've ever seen you post as to exactly how they should be testing to get true results. Obviously *you* have known the answer for years but I still don't know.

I ask you because you are the one who posts repeatedly about it. I'm not just out to bug you about it; I'd take an answer from anyone, even a pm.

Actually, I feel like the more I learn about influenza, the dumber I get. Every answer just leads to another question and I never have one of those *aha* moments. I'll go do more research on this to see what they did to get positives:

Russia did it in the summer of 2005 with hunter killed birds. NAMRU-3 had to work hard to get a sequence out of the healthy teal in late 2005 in the Nile Delta. In late 2006 South Korea identified a few positives with environmental samples. Out of the 414 fecal isolates published by Hong Kong, one was Qinghai.

 

[gsgs]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

maybe test the water ?


http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/13/9/1380.htm

http://www.usda.gov/documents/wildbirdstrategicplanpdf_seg7.pdf

 

[mixin]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

Gs, thank you for the links.

From the USDA link:

Fecal sampling is used extensively in monitoring studies for AI in wild bird populations. The principal advantages of this method are that the costs and effort of capturing birds are avoided and large sample numbers can be quickly and easily obtained. It also is a good method to determine the presence or absence of virus in bird populations present at a specific location.
The disadvantage is that species identification is not always possible,
determination of prevalence is complicated by the possibility of repeated sampling of individuals, and the sensitivity of the method is lower than for oral swabs.
However, the increased sampling effort occurring because of reduced sampling costs are anticipated to offset any short comings owing to decreased sensitivity.

I noticed this article was dated '06, so I searched the site for a newer one with the words *wild birds*. A new page came up and right in the middle was an article (also '06) entitled: Avian Influenza: Wild bird flu blame 'too hasty'

 

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

South Africa......2655 tracheal samples (two per bird)

Why didn't tracheal sampling return a positive result?

 

[HenryN]

Re: Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Free of Bird Flu

Why didn't tracheal sampling return a positive result?

Why only one ticket?