Avian Influenza: Results of EU Surveillance in Wild Birds Presented [Press Release]
EUROPA
2006 May 31
The European Commission and the Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) for Avian Influenza in Weybridge have published the results of the surveillance for avian influenza in wild birds carried out in the EU over the past 10 months. The extensive epidemiological data was presented today at the FAO/OIE International Scientific Conference on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds, which is taking place in Rome this week. Although final figures are still being collected for February-May 2006, it is estimated that around 60 000 wild birds were tested for avian influenza in the EU during that period.
This, combined with the 39 000 wild birds tested between July 2005-January 2006, means that almost 100 000 tests for the H5N1 virus have been carried out on wild birds over the past 10 months. Since February 2006, over 700 wild birds across 13 Member States have been found to be infected with the H5N1 “Asian strain” of avian influenza. However, a positive decline in the incidence of the disease in wild birds in Europe has also been noted over the past weeks.
Santa Fe County Man Hospitalized with Plague
KOBTV.com
2006 May 31
The state Department of Health says a Santa Fe County man has contracted the septicemic form of plague.Department spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer says the unidentified man is hospitalized in critical condition, but he is stable.
The septicemic form of the disease occurs when the plague bacteria multiply in the blood.
Plague has infected two people in New Mexico so far this year. A Bernalillo County woman died from the septicemic form of the disease earlier this month. She was the first person to die of plague in New Mexico in a dozen years.
Plague is generally transmitted to humans by the bites of infected fleas, but it also can be transmitted by direct contact with infected animals—rodents, wildlife and pets.
Wild Animal Trade Plays Role in Bird Flu Spread, Scientists Say
Bloomberg.com
2006 May 31
The legal and illegal trade of wild birds is playing a role in spreading the H5N1 avian flu virus that's killed 127 people, scientists said.
``We still don't understand this movement of wildlife,'' William Karesh, the New York-based director of the field veterinary program at the Wildlife Conservation Society said today at a conference in Rome. ``We have good records for legal trade, but that's only a bit of what's going on and it's probably not where the problems are.''
About 350 million live animals are moved worldwide to become pets or serve other domestic purposes in a trade worth about $20 billion a year. About one-quarter of this trade is thought to be illegal and so isn't inspected or tested. Disease outbreaks resulting from wildlife trade have caused hundreds of billions of dollars of economic damage globally, Karesh said.
Wild Birds Role Unclear in Spreading Bird Flu-FAO
Reuters AlertNet
2006 May 31
The role of wild birds in spreading the deadly avian influenza remains unclear, a top veterinary expert at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Wednesday after a two-day international scientific conference.
The virus primarily hits birds but it has killed 127 people around the world since it re-emerged in Asia in late 2003.
As the deadly H5N1 virus spread rapidly in the past six months from Asia into parts of the Middle East, Europe and Africa, specialists have been trying to work out how it travels.
Some suggest wild migrating birds are the main carriers, others point to poultry trade as the major force behind the virus's spread.
"Do we have a permanent reservoir (of the virus) in wild birds or not? It still remains a question," FAO's Chief of Animal Health Services Joseph Domenech told Reuters after the conference attended by over 300 scientists from 100 countries.
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