Recombinomics: Additional H5N1 Spread In Kurigram Bangladesh

Commentary

Additional H5N1 Spread In Kurigram Bangladesh
Recombinomics Commentary 17:43
December 30, 2008

The Bangladesh Ministry of Fish and Livestock has issued a December 27 report detailing another culling in Kurigram of 297 birds. This outbreak follows the outbreak at Balatari village last week (see updated map) and raises concerns of unreported outbreaks in adjacent areas, since Kurigram is small and shares borders with Cooch Bahar, Assam, and Meghalaya.

Assam has reported additional outbreaks in western areas, but there have been no reports near the Bangladesh border. Cooch Bahar and Meghalaya have issued alerts, but have not reported any outbreaks

Moreover, Bangladesh also reported an outbreak last week in Gailbandhi and West Bengal also confirmed H5N1 in the English Bazar block of Malda. However, there were also excessive poultry deaths in the adjacent blocks of Ratua I, Gajole, Manikchak, and Kaliachak II, although media reports indicate these dead birds were not tested.

H5N1 is likely to spread as birds migrate south and the temperature drops. Testing in India has been minimal, and low sensitivity tests are being used fro surveillance, while samples fro dead or dying poultry are not collected. All initial positives in Assam were from tissue samples and not from the low sensitivity serum tests.

Failures to control current outbreaks will lead to further H5N1 spread.
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