H5N1 Spread to Two More Districts in Northeastern Assam

Recombinomics Commentary 13:42
December 13, 2008

Two more districts in Assam were suspected to have been affected by bird flu with poultry deaths reported from Sibsagar and North Lakhimpur.

The above comment strongly suggests H5N1 has spread to two more districts in northeastern Assam (see updated map). Both districts share a border with Dibrugarh, where H5N1 was confirmed in an OIE report. Media reports indicate 40,000 birds are slated for culling this weekend, including most of the city of Dibrugarh, where H5N1 was confirmed. Moreover media reports indicate 120 birds “died all of a sudden on November 6” in Chiring Chapori, which would allow for significant spread prior to confirmation this week.

Moreover, media reports also indicate that culling of the entire Brahmaputra Valley is under consideration, which encompasses 21,900 square miles are covers most of Assam. As expected, the poultry deaths above begin to fill in the gap between confirmed cases in Dibrugarh in the northeast and Chirang in the northwest, where H5N1 has been confirmed.

There is concern of more rapid spread when the temperature falls below 68 F. Last season most of the reported H5N1 spread in West Bengal and Bangladesh was in January and February. H5N1 has been recently confirmed at two locations in northwestern Bangladesh and excessive poultry deaths have been reported across the border in Malda, West Bengal (see 2008 map).

Additional H5N1 confirmations are expected.