WattAgNet: Avian flu returns to Israel, Kuwait, Bangladesh

Other countries worldwide deal with virus

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) continues to trouble the poultry industry worldwide. A number of countries have reported the virus not only in commercial poultry flocks, but in backyard flocks, wild birds and even cattle.

Avian flu in Israel
Veterinary authorities in Israel reported to World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) the detection of the H5N8 HPAI virus in wild birds in three national parks as well as in three flocks of fattening turkeys affecting 96,000 birds.

Kuwait backyard flock affected
Kuwait has detected the same virus family for the first time in a mixed backyard flock in Jahra governate.

Asian avian influenza cases
The H5N1 HPAI virus has been reported in India – at a small farm in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat in the west of the country, according to an OIE report. The H5N8 virus was also detected in birds at zoos between October and December last year. A total of 38 birds died at locations in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

After an absence of almost one year, the H5N1 virus has returned to Bangladesh. The virus has been detected in dead crows at Rajshahi in the north-west of the country, and in a flock of 3,000 crossbred chickens near the city of Dhaka.

The number of outbreaks of HPAI in poultry caused by an H5N6 virus in Japan now stands at nine, following the confirmation of an outbreak in a flock of 168,000 broiler in Miyazaki prefecture.

Focus Taiwan reports a new outbreak…