Qinghai H5N1 Spread in Suffolk England
Recombinomics Commentary
February 9, 2007
Bird flu was found last night to have spread through the Bernard Matthews complex in Suffolk, scotching a government theory that a single wild bird had infected the flock. Diseased turkeys were identified in three more of the sheds and the H5N1 strain of the flu was also linked to the company's processing plant from which meat is sent all over Britain.
Last night both the government and the company conceded that a consignment of partially processed turkey meat from the Bernard Matthews' plant in Hungary had been sent to Suffolk and was now at the centre of the investigations into the origins of the outbreak. It is believed that this meat could have become infected during a series of H5N1 outbreaks in the south of the country after Christmas.
The above comments describe the spread of H5N1 to three additional sheds on the turkey farm in Suffolk. These data indicate the biosecurity at the farm is not as effective as indicated in early reports, which indicated the H5N1 was limited to the shed where approximately one third of the turkeys died, and just under two thirds of the remaining turkeys had symptoms.
Various media reports have given a range of comments regarding H5N1 in the adjacent processing plant, including the trucking of poultry from Hungary to the processing plant adjacent to the farm. Although the Hungarian processing plant owned by Bernard Mathews is 150 miles from the H5N1 outbreak in geese at farms in southeast Hungary, movement of turkeys and chickens in Hungary to that plant remains unclear.
Sequence comparisons between H5N1 in England and Hungary have been described as closely relate as well as identical. Since all reported HPAI H5N1 in Europe has been the Qinghai strain, which is transmitted and transported by wild birds, a close relationship between 2007 sequences in Hungary and England was expected. Release of sequences from both locations would allow for an independent analysis of the relatedness between H5N1 in Hungary and England.
Similarly, H5N1 testing at processing plants in Hungary and England would help resolve the origin of the H5N1 at the turkey farm. The increasing number of countries reporting H5N1 this year indicates H5N1 is widespread in Europe, as was reported last year. Inn many countries, the H5N1 has only been detected in wild birds and the H5N1 have regional markers. In addition to Hungary, H5N1 has recently been reported in Krasnodar, Afghanistan, and Egypt. In Turkey, poultry deaths have been linked to bird flu, which is expected to be Qinghai H5N1 also.
Further testing of products in processing plants in Hungary and England, as well as release of H5N1 sequences from outbreaks in 2006 and 2007 in Europe would be useful.
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Phylogenetic Trees