H5N1 Outbreaks in Ningxia Hui and Inner Mongolia
Recombinomics Commentary
October 4, 2006
A new outbreak of bird flu has killed about 1,000 poultry in northern China in the second such case in a week, state media reported on Wednesday.
Some 72,930 domestic poultry have been slaughtered and the outbreak is now under control, Xinhua news agency said. Laboratory tests had confirmed the H5N1 strain of the virus, which can be deadly to humans, it added.
The outbreak, in Henan New Village in Yinchuan, regional capital of the desert-like Ningxia Hui region, follows a similar occurrence in neighbouring Inner Mongolia.
The two H5N1 bird flu outbreaks in northern China is not a suprise. Over the summer there was a massive die-off of waterfowl in Tuva in southern Siberia and northern Mongolia. The Qinghai strain was isolated and the H5N1 was rapidly evolving. The later samples could be distinguished from the earlier sequences, signaling significant recombination.
New sequences create new problems.
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