H5N1 Surveillance in England Remains Fatally Flawed
Recombinomics Commentary
February 3, 2007
"All poultry farmers are in shock as we had no inkling that is had suddenly turned up in England," National Farmers' Union Poultry Board chairman Charles Bourns told Reuters.
The above comments are cause for concern. Last year the Qinghai strain of H5N1 was detected in a dead swan that washed up on the shores of Scotland. The failure of the DEFRA surveillance system to find more than one H5N1 positive bird strongly suggested that the surveillance system was fatally flawed.
This concern was reinforced by protocols that allowed swabs to dry out during refrigerated storage. Such protocols reduce the likelihood of isolating avian influenza from the sample, which was confirmed by the low rate of isolation of any avian influenza under the DFRA protocol..
The H7N3 outbreak near the coast of England also indicated the surveillance was fatally flawed, because the H7N3 was not detected in wild birds prior to the reported outbreak.
Data from this season is similar to last season. The isolation rate remains below 0.5% and the current H5 outbreak was not detected in wild birds prior to confirmation in the 2500 dead farm turkeys.
It is difficult to understand why H5N1 in England would be a “shock”.
H5NH1 has been confirmed in Hungary and Krasnodar. The H5N1 is transmitted and transported by migratory birds that blanket Europe, including the coast of England.
The H5N1 surveillance throughout Europe, like the DEFRA program in England, remains fatally flawed.
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