H5N1 Confirmed in Wild Birds in Iran
Recombinomics Commentary 18:58
January 20, 2008
"The virus first seen in wild swans in the area ... has been found among native ducks and geese around the northern village of Barzanghib in Iran's Mazandaran province."
The above comments describe confirmed H5N1 in wild birds in Iran along the coast of the Caspian sea (see satellite map). These results support the H5N1 confirmed in domestic poultry in the region. In the past, H5N1 from Iran was clade 2.2.3, which was also detected in Russia, Azerbaijan. Afghanistan, and India in 2006.
Recent outbreaks in Europe have been the Uva Lake strain, which is also clade 2.2.3. Therefore, it is likely that the H5N1 in Iran is also the Uva Lake strain, which is active in Europe and is also likely to be in the Middle East and south Asia, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.
The release of sequence data fro these regions would be useful.
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