06 December 2005
Ukraine Reports Bird Flu; Role of Migratory Birds Debated
Indonesia reports another human death from avian flu
By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington – Ukraine is the latest European country to report the appearance of the H5 avian influenza strain, according to data reported by the nation’s chief veterinary agency to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
Further tests are being conducted to identify whether the virus appearing in Ukraine is H5N1, the strain that has resulted in the deaths of more than 150 million birds across Asia.
The December 5 report from Ukraine says the illness that developed in ducks and geese in five villages of Crimea presented itself with the rapid onset of symptoms and the quick deaths that have killed birds elsewhere since the first appearance of the disease in Southeast Asia almost two years ago.
Since July, this virulent form of bird flu has spread broadly from its initial detection in Asia to Mongolia, Russia, Romania, Turkey, Croatia and now Ukraine.
In its report to the OIE, the Central State Laboratory in Kiev cites contact with wild birds as the source of the disease in domestic flocks. Nearly 2,000 birds died from the disease; more than 2,600 were destroyed to eradicate the virus.
Migrating flocks frequently are blamed for transmitting H5N1 to domestic birds, but no hard scientific evidence supports the claim that the seasonal movements of birds have carried the disease into the most recently afflicted nations.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is warning against wholesale action against wild birds following some reports from Vietnam that the creatures are being killed in an effort to stave off disease there.
Vietnam has had scores of outbreaks around the country since 2004, and more people have contracted the disease there than in any other country.
The total number of human cases worldwide is just over 130, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Vietnam has reported 93 of those, with 42 deaths.
The FAO said November 29 that any campaign to target wild birds is a distraction from the main task of containing the disease among domestic poultry, also debunking the idea that urban wild birds are at fault in the spread of the disease.
“Wild bird species found in and around cities are different from the wetland waterfowl that have been identified as carriers of the avian influenza virus,” said Juan Lubroth, FAO’s senior officer responsible for infectious animal disease.
The idea of exterminating wild birds to eliminate avian influenza has been floated elsewhere as the virus spreads to other nations, and officials work to calm concerned publics.
The suggestion is “like removing all the dust in the world,” said William Karesh of the Wildlife Conservation Society field veterinary program, speaking at a Washington seminar on avian influenza November 30.
Karesh and a scientific team studied diseased birds in Mongolia after H5N1 was discovered among migratory swans, geese and ducks in August. About 90 dead birds were found around a lake in the Huvsgel province, not many by Karesh’s estimation.
Migratory birds are not carrying the virus into other nations, Karesh said. Scientists have not been able to conduct the necessary study to answer the key question: “What percentage of the whole population [of a migrating flock] has the virus?” Karesh said.
Although the trip to Mongolia did not answer some of the big questions about the intercontinental movement of H5N1, Karesh said it did bring together scientists from the animal and health communities who had not worked cooperatively in the past. He has pursued the same type of bridge-building in China.
He and the World Conservation Society are advocating the creation of a Global Network for Avian Influenza Surveillance to maintain better information and communications among scientists about what types of viral strains are circulating about the planet.
INDONESIAN DEATH
Indonesia’s Ministry of Health has confirmed another human fatality from the bird flu virus H5N1, according to a December 6 WHO update. A 25-year-old woman developed symptoms of fever and stomach discomfort November 17, then died November 25.
This woman is the 13th human case of the disease to be confirmed in Indonesia. She is the eighth person to die in that country.
As has been the case with virtually all human cases of avian influenza, the Indonesian women had contact with infected birds, and health authorities are working to confirm that was her means of infection.
So far, H5N1 has not transmitted easily from person to person, but medical experts warn that the virus may undergo a change that would allow it to do so, setting the stage for a global influenza pandemic.
For additional information on the avian influenza and efforts to combat it, see Bird Flu.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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