H5N1 Confirmed in India
Recombinomics Commentary
July 25, 2007
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is expected to review the "confirmed reports" of large scale bird flu tha has hit a Chingmeirong farm in Manipur earlier this month.
It is learnt that Pawar would brief the Prime Minister and other senior Cabinet colleagues on the bird flu that has hit the North Eastern state possibly due to a virus H5N1 which must have travelled from across Myanmar and Bangladesh borders.
"Situation is grim" said an official on condition of anonimity.
The above comments suggest H5N1 has been detected in Manipur (recent media reports confirm H5N1). 133 of 144 birds on one farm have died, and owners and workers have been offered Tamiflu. H5N1 has been confirmed in Bangladesh to the west, and Myanmar to the east. However, confirmed cases in Myanmar have been to the south, while Bangladesh outbreaks have been closer.
H5N1 in northern India is not unexpected. In May, 2005 the Qinghai strain was first reported in bar-headed geese at Qinghai Lake. Since bar-headed geese winter in the northern plains of India, H5N1 was expected in early 2006 and 2007. However, only H5N1 in western India were reported (see satellite map). Recent reports on PB2 sequences from the 2006 outbreak confirm the Qinghai strain of H5N1, including E627K. Additional markers in PB2 link the 2006 outbreak to isolates from Tyva and Mongolia, which was also reported for the current outbreaks in Germany.
Like India, western Europe also failed to detect/report H5N1 in the fall of 2005 as well as much of 2006 and 2007. The re-emergence of H5N1 in the summer, suggests H5N1 has become endemic in Europe, and confirmation of H5N1 in Manipur would suggest H5N1 has become endemic in India also.
The recent re-emergence of H5N1 in Germany, France, the Czech Republic, coupled with recent reports of H5N1 in Ghana and Togo, suggest H5N1 has dramatically increased its geographical reach and has become endemic to vast regions west of China.
The recent reports also highlight the need for a more robust and sensitive surveillance program. Western Europe has yet to detect H5N1 in live wild birds, although H5N1 has been reported in early 2006 and more recently in dead or dying wild birds.
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