Suspect H5N1 in Shpol Ukraine
Recombinomics Commentary 13:52
April 18, 2008
Health inspectors discovered thousands of dead chickens at a Ukrainian poultry farm, with bird flu suspected as the cause, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday. The die-off took place at a poultry-processing plant near the city Shpol, in the northern Cherkassy province.
The above comments describe a suspected H5N1 outbreak in Ukraine. The outbreak was not unexpected. As birds migrate to the north at this time of year, interactions with domestic poultry increase. Surveillance remains poor, so most reports of H5N1 now come from infected farms or processing plants (see satellite map). Sequence data from an earlier outbreak this year indicated the Uvs Lake strain of H5N1 had migrated to the Crimean Peninsula.
More information on testing and serotype would be useful.
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