Qinghai H5N1 Spread in Germany
Recombinomics Commentary
July 5, 2007
Some 38 wild birds have tested positive for a lethal strain of bird flu in a fourth German state, health authorities said Thursday. The birds were found with the H5N1 strain in the eastern state of Thuringia, the Friedrich Loeffler federal animal diseases institute said.
They were among 100 birds found dead in an artificial lake on the border between Thuringia and the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The above comments describe the spread of H5N1 in Germany. Local media indicates 89 dead birds (black-neck grebe, Podiceps nigricollis) have been collected from the lake, and all of the first 38 tested have been H5N1 positive. In addition, two more positive birds in Nuremberg were announced, and France confirmed H5N1 in three dead swans.
The increasing numbers of dead H5N1 over an extended time frame and an expanding geographical reach suggests more surveillance will lead no more positives.
Lake 2006, the sequences of the isolates indicate these are independent introductions. In contrast to the 0.1% difference between isolates in the UK and Hungary, earlier this year, the difference between the Nuremberg isolates and the poultry in the Czech Republic is reported to be 0.8%. Similarly, the difference with isolates in Kuwait is said to be 0.5%. The Nuremberg isolates are said to be closest to Tyva/Mongolia isolates from 2006, which we collected from a massive outbreak in southern Siberia and northern Mongolia.
The reported differences are similar to the differences between three sub-clades in Germany last year. One sub-clade, 2.2.2.1, was defined by isolates in northern Germany and Denmark. These isolates were closely related, and had a difference of 1.0% with clade 2.2.2.2 and 0.7% with clade 2.2.2.3. Similarly, the difference between clade 2.2.2.2 and 2.2.2.3 was 0.6%.
Moreover, the H5N1 positives in Germany involve at least four different species, which also signals independent introductions. Independent introductions are also indocated by teh confiormed H5N1 in two distinct regions of teh Czech Republic, as well as France.
The increasing numbers and distributions suggest H5N1 is also circulating undetected and unreported in neighboring countries.
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