H5N1 Spread in Bangladesh
Recombinomics Commentary 12:31
December 28, 2007
Nearly 2,000 chickens have been culled in a village in northern Bangladesh after the H5N1 bird flu virus has detected at a poultry farm, officials said on Friday.
The latest infection was detected in Dinajpur district, 420 km (260 miles) from the capital Dhaka, a senior official of Fisheries and Livestock Ministry said.
The above comments describe a new outbreak of H5N1 in Bangladesh. H5N1 was first reported the earlier this year. Last month activity began to increase, as would be expected this time of the year. Bar headed geese from China winter in India and Bangladesh, and birds migrating south redistribute H5N1. Sequences from Bangladesh have not been released, but they are likely to the clade 2.2 Qinghai strain similar to the sequences from India. 2006 sequence from India (and Afghanistan) have been released, but neither country has released sequence data for the multiple outbreaks this year (see satellite map).
There have been no reported human H5N1 cases in Bangladesh, but the country is densely populated and has a large poultry industry.
The recent clusters in Pakistan raise concerns that the strain circulating in the region may lead to additional new cases in Pakistan and elsewhere. The Uva Lake strain of clade 2.2 has been widely detected in Europe and the Middle East this year, and it is likely that the H5N1 in Pakistan is related to the Uva Lake strain.
Sequence data on H5N1 in Bangladesh would be useful
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