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New H5N1Wild Bird Flu Outbreaks In Inner Mongolia and Hubei
Recombinomics Commentary
November 20, 2005
About 3,500 geese died at a family farm in a development zone in Shishou city in the central province of Hubei, the official Xinhua news agency said, adding that 3,800 poultry were slaughtered within a radius of 3 km (2 miles).
In the northern region of Inner Mongolia, 176 domestic poultry died and 3,202 poultry were culled, Xinhua said.
The above comments indicate that H5N1 outbreaks in China remain out of control. Media reports suggest additional new outbreaks in Xinjiang province and Hubei, but these may overlap the recent announcements, which are describing 1-2 new outbreaks per day.
Most of the recent announcements are for provinces that have had recent outbreaks, providing additional evidence that the control measures and vaccinations are not preventing new outbreaks.
New sequences from Mongolia identify a novel HA cleavage site, which may be related to new outbreaks and/or human cases in eastern China (see map).
Sequence data from the new outbreaks would help determine the relationship of these new outbreaks to H5N1 wild bird flu sequences out of Mongolia and Russia and would help determine how rapidly H5N1 is recombining and evolving.
Map
Media Resources