Qinghai H5N1 Spread in Ghana
Recombinomics Commentary
May 10, 2007
The Tema Municipality within one week has recorded the third outbreak of avian influenza, otherwise known as bird flu, at a poultry farm at Adjei Kojo, near Ashaiman.
The disease that killed a number of birds, might have spread from a near by poultry farm, which had about 12,000 birds, 323 crates of eggs, and 375 kilogrammes of feed that was destroyed.
The above comments describe the spread of Qinghai H5N1 in Ghana. US NAMRU-3 sequences of three isolates from the initial outbreak were most closely related to turkey isolates from a December, 2006 outbreak in the adjacent Ivory Coast. However, the Ghana sequences contained NA G743A, which has recently been reported in isolates in Moscow and multiple locations in Egypt.
This polymorphism, which was not in the isolates from the Ivory Coast, signaled acquisition from migratory birds. Like many countries in western Africa, Ghana lies within the intersection of 2 or 3 major flyways. In adjacent Nigeria, H5N1 sequences indicate there have been multiple independent introductions into the region, including farms that were only 50 miles apart.
Therefore, additional sequence data on Ghana isolates from nearby farms would be useful to determine if the spread is linked to poor biosecurity, or is due to multiple introductions via migratory birds.
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