H5N1 Spread in Poland
Recombinomics Commentary
December 4, 2007
Over 10,000 turkeys have already been killed on the infected farms in Mysliborzyce and Uniejew, near Plock.
However, it has already been established that the virus is spreading. Medical tests have proven that the two dead hens found on a farm in Mysliborzyce died of bird flu.
The above comments describe the spread of H5N1 in Poland. Although initial media reports described three farms, the OIE report only described two farms and media reports indicated H5N1 was not confirmed at the third farm. However, the above report indicates H5N1 has been found at a third farm, and the fatal infections are in chickens.
A recall had been placed on the turkey meat because it had been distributed to two wholesalers who had sold the infected meat to retail meat markets and restaurants.
The latest infections raise concerns that more H5N1 infected poultry will be identified. The quarantine region lies along the river that links to locations with H5N1 positive wild birds in 2006. Recent reports of H5N1 in Romania, England, and Krasnodar suggest that more domestic outbreaks linked to wild birds will be reported.
Recently the sequence of H5N1 from a whooper swan was released. The HA sequence was an exact match with H5N1 from a poultry outbreak in Krasnodar in September. Those sequences were closely related to recently released sequences from wild birds from three distinct outbreaks in Germany over the summer. Those sequences link back to a massive wild bird outbreak at Uva Lake in Mongolia in the summer of 2006. Related sequences are said to be in outbreaks in Kuwait, the Czech Republic, France, and England, suggesting that H5N1 outbreaks will be common this season. H5N1 has also been reported recently in Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well as multiple locations in Asia.
Therefore more outbreaks in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are expected, and many or most of these sequences will also trace back to the Uva Lake outbreak.
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