Suspect H5N1 in West Bengal India
Recombinomics Commentary 15:51
January 13, 2008
Preliminary results of tests taken after thousands of backyard poultry died in West Bengal over the past 10 days showed they were infected with bird flu, but it was unclear if it was the H5N1 virus, officials said.
More than 10,000 birds died in Margram village of Birbhum district in West Bengal.
The above comments suggest that H5N1 has been detected in West Bengal, India. Such an outbreak would not be a surprise, because adjacent Bangladesh has been reporting H5N1 outbreaks almost daily (see satellite map). Similarly, Pakistan recently reported the most sustained human to human transmission of H5N1 and Saudi Arabia has culled over 5 million birds, as Egypt and Israel report new outbreaks and Iran has sent samples to Italy for confirmation. H5N1 is also being reported throughout Europe, as OIE officials say there are just two hotspots west of China (in Egypt and Nigeria).
H5N1 has been spreading under the radar of abysmal surveillance programs, and now poultry outbreaks are being widely reported.
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