H5N1 Confirmed in 153 Grebes on Kelbra Lake in Germany
Recombinomics Commentary
July 6, 2007
The dangerous virus H5N1 was proven in the meantime with 153 dead game birds. "the result was positive with all animals." That said the deputy specialist area leader veterinary medicine in the national office for consumer protection in Stendal, Wolfgang Gaede, on Friday. It exclusively concerned the kinds of game bird hood divers and black neck divers.
The above translation describes the H5N1 confirmation in Black-neck grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) and Great crested grebes (Posiceps cristatus), Earlier, FriedrichLoeffler Institute had detailed the confirmation of the birds in Thurigen and Saxony-Anhalt on Kelbra Lake, which spans the two German states. Yesterday, media reports had indicated the first 38 birds tested were positive, and the number of dead birds was 190, so the total could go higher.
Last year, over 700 wild birds were H5N1 positive in throughout Europe between February and April, so the 153 positives in one location would be the highest to date.
Last year the detection of H5N1 in western Europe in February was said to be due to the harsh winter. However, the current outbreak at the lake, as well as smaller outbreaks in Saxony and Bavaria in Germany, as well as two locations in the Czech Republic and one in France have been identified in June/July.
Moreover, the Nuremberg isolates are most closely related to H5N1 from a massive outbreak at the Russia/Mongolia border in Tyva one year ago. Although those sequences were not detected or reported in the past 12 months in Europe, it seems likely that there will be more similar sequences in Germany.
The sequences from Kelbra Lake will be of interest. The first H5N1 sequences from a healthy wild bird were from a Great crested grebe (A/grebe/Novosibisk/29/2005) in Siberia. Similarly, the isolates from Tyva were also grebes (A/grebe/Tyva/Tyv06-1/06).
The presence of the sequences in Germany in June and July suggests that H5N1 is endemic in Europe.
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