H5N1 Confirmed in Canada Goose in Dorset England
Recombinomics Commentary 15:25
February 29, 2008
Defra has today confirmed that a Canada goose collected on 25 February in the Wild Bird Monitoring Area in Dorset as part of wild bird surveillance has tested positive for highly pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza. The bird was found less than a kilometre from where the previous positive cases in swans were collected.
This is the 11th wild bird with highly pathogenic H5N1 in the area. The previous ten cases were in wild mute swans, with the last case being confirmed on 4 February.
The above comments on an H5N1 confirmed Canada goose in Dorset are not a surprise. However, the finding of H5N1 over a two month period in two wild bird species further supports H5N1 circulation in wild birds in the region (see satellite map).
Moreover, the DEFRA description of the sequence relationships between the first four isolates leaves little doubt that the infections are not from a common source, as indicated or implied in the DEFRA report and press releases.
Recent sequences from other outbreaks in Europe involve exact matches between wild birds and infected poultry, demonstrating the level of fidelity in isolates collected in the same region over a short time period. Such levels have not been reported for the isolates in Dorset.
The latest positive demonstrates that enhanced surveillance detects H5N1 in wild bird populations in England. The described sequences are clade 2.2.3, which is the only subclade reported in western Europe since the summer of 2007. Sequences have been released for multiple independent infections in Germany in the summer of 2007, as well as more recent isolates from Krasnodar and Romania. Sequences from the same sub-clade have been published from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
In contrast, DEFRA has withheld the sequences from H5N1 in Suffolk in the fall of 2007, as well as the 11 confirmed cases in or near the swannery in DEFRA.
Release of the H5N1 sequences from isolates in England would be useful.
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