More H5N1 Spread in Germany
Recombinomics Commentary
December 25, 2007
The third case of the deadly bird flu virus in ten days has been discovered on a small poultry farm in the German state of Brandenburg resulting in the culling of 46 chickens, officials said Tuesday.
The H5N1 virus was detected among 15 chickens on a property in the state, which surrounds the German capital Berlin.
The property's owner, who had contacted officials on Monday, was also looking after a neighbouring property with 31 chickens over the Christmas period. As a precaution the chickens on both properties were destroyed.
The above comments describe the continuing spread of H5N1 in northeastern Germany. Last week FLI announced the sequences were linked to the Uva Lake strain of H5N1, which was seen in the H5N1 isolated at multiple locations in Germany. Similar sequences were detected in Krasnodar in September in isolates from a chicken and a whooper swan. Poland has also reported multiple H5N1 in domestic and wild birds. Similarly Rostov, which is adjacent to Krasnodar, has also reported multiple outbreaks (see satellite map).
It is likely that all of these outbreaks are linked to migrating birds. This H5N1 spread in recent weeks suggests more H5N1 in domestic and wild birds in the upcoming weeks in Europe. To date Europe has not reported human H5N1 cases. However, the reports of H5N1 in Pakistan, suggests more human infections are likely.
Pakistan has put its hospitals on alert, while Jordan and Egypt have also issued recent alerts for H5N1.
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