On 3rd January 2014 the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) notified to the Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1).
The outbreak started on 27th December 2013 in the village of Yijue, Guizhou, where 8.500 birds died and 23.067 chickens were culled to prevent the disease from spreading. The outbreak is ongoing and the causes are at the moment unknown. There will be weekly report to the OIE from the Chinese Authorities. All safety measures were applied, such as quarantine, movement control inside the country, screening, zoning and disinfection of infected premises/establishment.
On 21st December 2013 there were another outbreak of bird flu H5N2 in a Zhuzhuang village: 4.000 birds died and 127.500 culled by Authorities.
The bird flu in China is far from being under control.
Update 7.01.14
The Chinese Authorities confirmed a case of H7N9 in a sample taken from a live animal in a poultry market in the Guangdong province, where the sell of poultry is now stopped.
In the region there was a cluster of human cases. A 47 year-old man, poultry worker from Foshan, and a 71 year-old man are in critical conditions. The WHO confirmed also two cases in December and an 80 year-old man died on 26 December 2013, but in different regions from Guangdong
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Thank You for the information about the Bird Flu,but the date at the top of the page is not correct,it should say 1/11/14 Barbara Chism,today is 1/13/14
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Thank you Barbara…sorry for the inconvenience, but here in Europe we tend to express the date in the format dd/mm/year, which is not the same as in the US (mm/dd/year).
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Currently China is experiencing at least three distinct poultry zoonotics due to avian influenza viruses: an H5N1 (endemic, at least since 2003), an H9N2 (endemic) and an H7N9 (since beginning of 2013, a virus reassortant from H9N2 (internal genes), H7 and an N9 strain). Furthermore, human cases of H9N2, H5N1, H7N9, H10N8 have been detected both in Mainland and in surrounding region (HK, Taipei). All these viruses pose threat to human health, but of concern is the novel H7N9, having some genetic signatures of mammals adaptation. Animals situation is far for being clarified, since for H7 subtypes there are not validated and accepted serologic testing for poultry, although HK authorities recently pressed Mainland counterparts to adopt a such kind of screening in order to reduce risk of dissemination of intected animals.
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Thank you Giuseppe. Precious information.
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