H5N1, Bird Flu Updates - Page 20

Some 8,000 chickens of a poultry farm, infected with the H5N1 virus, in Kishoreganj have been culled.

The culled chickens, from Mozammel Haque's poultry farm at Bagadia village of Sadar Upazila, were buried on Thursday noon under the supervision of the district livestock department.

...avian influenza H5N1 recurred in Sittway township, Myanmar's western Rakhine state, in mid-January causing death of 700 three-month-old chickens in a poultry farm in the township.

As a preventive measure to halt the spread of the influenza, over 50,000 chickens from 75 nearby farms, suspected of carrying virulent avian influenza, were reportedly wiped out following the discovery of the unusual death of chickens in the area.

Miyazaki Prefecture said Saturday that birds found dead at a poultry farm in Takachiho were confirmed infected with a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu virus, the eighth case in the prefecture and 12th in Japan this winter.

The farm raises about 40,000 broiler chickens, and prefectural officials started culling them and another 17,000 chickens at related facilities. A ban on shipping chickens and eggs was imposed for a radius of 10 km from the farm.

In a related development, the Nagasaki Prefectural Government said Saturday a virulent strain of bird flu was found in a mandarin duck that was found dead Friday at a pond in the city of Nagasaki together with two other ducks.

A five-year-old Cambodian girl has died from bird flu, the World Health Organisation said Wednesday, in the first reported fatality from the virus since early last year.

The girl fell ill in the capital Phnom Penh on January 30 and was taken to hospital with symptoms of coughing and shortness of breath, a joint statement from Cambodia and the UN's public health arm said. She died on February 4.

"Despite intensive medical care, the girl died 12 hours after admission from complications," it said.

The Department of Livestock Services has ordered to cull bird flu infected 8,800 chickens of two poultry farms at Savar.

Savar Upazila livestock office says the chickens would be culled by Sunday night as they were found infected in lab tests.

Chickens of both the farms were dying of H5N1 virus over the last few days.

“The Tripura government has sounded an alert in the state following outbreak of avian influenza in R K Nagar farm (about 6 km from here) and about 3,000 ducks and chicken were culled there yesterday,” Principal Secretary of Animal Resource Development department Sriram Taranikant told reporters.

Mr. Taranikant said that as preventive measures poultry and egg markets within 10 km radius of the R K Nagar farm were closed, restrictions imposed on the movement of personnel working in the farm, strict surveillance was being maintained in the farm and adjacent areas and the entire area being sanitised.

Following instructions from the Central expert team, the State government decided to cull poultry birds within 3 km radius of the infected farm.

About 300 poultries, including chickens, ducks and birds, had died in Kampung Warung, Banyuresmi, Garut, West Java, within last week. Laboratory test showed those birds died of bird flu H5N1 virus.

Chief of Banyuresmi, Wawan Ridwan said the poultries had suddenly died without any sign of sickness, that people took it as a common death.

For preventing any possible disease transmission to human, Livestock Service is now socializing the culling plan with locals in Kampung Warung.