Qinghai H5N1 Confirmed in Sunyani Ghana
Recombinomics Commentary
May 22, 2007
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has confirmed the detection of the Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) in the New Dormaa suburb of Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The farm is located at Asuokwa.
The above comments confirm an H5N1 outbreak in a new region of Ghana. Earlier this month H5N1 was confirmed at multiple farms near Tema on the coast. The above outbreak is about 150 miles north of Tema, providing additional support for infections by migratory birds.
Isolates from the earlier outbreak were sequenced by US NAMRU-3. The H and N of three chicken isolates were identical and were most closely related to three turkey isolates from the Ivory Coast that were collected in December, 2006. The isolates were the expected Qinghai strain with western African markers. The Ghana H sequences differed from the Ivory Coast turkey sequences at 7 positions, and differed from the N sequence at 4 positions. One of the four NA differences was G743A. Although the number of NA difference between closely related sequences is limited, this same change was found in six recent isolates in Egypt (on four different genetic backgrounds) and two isolates from the suburbs of Moscow. The concurrent changes in Europe, the Middle East, and west Africa of the same position, strongly suggests that these difference were acquired by recombination with wild bird sequences that donated G743A.
The latest outbreak in Sunyani is likely to involve a new sequence, supporting an independent introduction of H5N1 into central Ghana. Independent introductions have been seen previously in Nigeria in farms that were only 50 miles apart. Although Ghana had not reported H5N1 infections prior to the outbreaks earlier this month, neighboring countries, including Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast have reported H5N1 outbreaks this season and/or last season, and most of the polymorphisms in the Ghana isolates are shared with Qinghai H5N1 isolates in neighboring countries.
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