End Times and Current Events

General Category => Health => Topic started by: Psalm 51:17 on March 06, 2013, 09:42:03 pm



Title: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on March 06, 2013, 09:42:03 pm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hnLQ3lI5qAmJGK669fOAExPZrlcA?docId=CNG.3aba825e583ec159d26275d73e8dfe97.891
3/1/13
Cambodia orders action to stop deadly bird flu

PHNOM PENH — Phnom Penh on Friday ordered urgent action to stem the "worrying" number of bird flu deaths in Cambodia, following a surge in the number of fatalities from the virus. Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a directive for police, agriculture and health departments to join forces to combat the virus, which has killed eight people since the beginning of the year -- the worst recorded outbreak in a nation that has seen a total of 27 bird flu deaths in a decade. "Although there have been preventive measures taken by specialist institutions, the spread and the rate of human deaths from bird flu is at a worrying level," the order said.

http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/national/2662-h5n1-infections-detected-in-myanmar-poultry
3/3/13
H5N1 infections detected in Myanmar poultry

Myanmar detected abnormal chicken deaths in poultry farms in 2012 and dead chickens were traded without permission from authorities, an official from the epidemiology section of the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) told Eleven Media Group. Some townships in the country have been regarded as special zones for breeding chickens and quails. The townships include Monywa, Shwebo, Mandalay in the middle and upper Myanmar, Kyaukme and Taunggyi in Shan State, Bago region and Nyaungnapin in Yangon region. In January 2013, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Myanmar Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) had lectured the poultry owners about avian influenza in chickens and human, and surveyed the occurrence of H5N1.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/03/04/2003556243
3/4/13
CDC announces H5N1 vaccination

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced on Saturday that amid the spreading of the H5N1 avian flu, a government-funded vaccine is now available for voluntary recipients who are at high risk of exposure to the influenza virus. Starting on Friday, the CDC began to provide a vaccine against the H5N1 avian influenza and the service will continue until the end of August, the agency said. The CDC recommended that people who work in the inspection and quarantine sectors, medical institutes and those who frequently visit countries with reported outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu should get vaccinated against the virus. The H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected only in poultry at first, but has undergone genetic mutations in recent years which have resulted in human cases of the infection, the CDC said.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/mar0413fluscan.html
3/4/13
FLU NEWS SCAN: Human H5N1 vaccination in Taiwan, FAO inks China lab collaboration

FAO designates China lab an animal flu reference center
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today designated an animal influenza lab in northeastern China as one of its animal influenza reference centers, according to Xinhua, China's state news agency. The Animal Influenza Laboratory (AIL) is part of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences' Harbin Veterinary Research Institute in Harbin, the capital of Heillongjiang province. The AIL is China's first FAO reference center. Juan Lubroth, DVM, PhD, chief veterinary officer for the FAO, said the lab will share information and conduct joint projects with the FAO on animal influenza surveillance, prevention, control, epidemiology, and genetic analysis. Yu Kangzheng, China's chief veterinary officer, told Xinhua that establishing the new reference lab will expand cooperation between the FAO and China and will strengthen cross-border disease control efforts among a host of countries.


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on March 11, 2013, 11:38:48 am
http://news.oneindia.in/2013/03/11/bird-flu-outbreak-in-bihar-1168678.html
3/11/13
Bird flu outbreak in Bihar

Patna, March 11: More than 2,000 chickens were culled and a large quantity of eggs destroyed in Bihar's Purnea district in the last 24 hours following an outbreak of avian flu, officials said Monday.

Purnea District Magistrate Manish Verma said bird flu was detected last week.

"More birds would be culled as a precautionary step. The administration had issued bird flu alert as a preventive measure. We are fully prepared to deal with an outbreak," the district magistrate said.

An official of the animal husbandry department said the state government had also alerted neighbouring districts of Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria, and asked concerned officials to take emergency measures in view of the bird flu outbreak in Purnea.

Verma told IANS over telephone that kits, medicines and other material have been distributed to all medical centres for treatment of any patient suspected to be affected by bird flu.

"Till date, no case has been reported in the district," Verma said.

The district magistrate said 15 teams of officials have been formed to check the spread of bird flu and ensure that birds and eggs from the district were not sent outside Purnea.

Purnea is about 350 km from the state capital.

"All entries along the border of the district have been sealed and additional officials have been deployed to prevent traders from sending birds outside," an official said.

Purnea is a major supplier of chicken across Bihar; fowl and eggs from the district also find their way to markets in neighbouring West Bengal.



Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on March 31, 2013, 02:43:45 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21988423
3/31/13
China bird flu: Two men die in Shanghai

Two men have died in the Chinese city of Shanghai, after contracting a strain of bird flu not previously known in humans, Chinese officials say.

The men, aged 27 and 87, both fell ill with the H7N9 strain in February and died some weeks later in March, Xinhua news agency reported.

A woman of 35 who caught the virus elsewhere is said to be critically ill.

It is unclear how the strain spread, but the three did not infect each other or any close contacts, officials say.

While both men who died were in Shanghai, the third victim was reported in Chuzhou in the eastern province of Anhui.

According to China's National Health and Family Planning Commission, all three became ill with coughs and fevers before developing pneumonia.

Commission experts said on Saturday the cause had been identified as H7N9, a strain of avian flu not thought to have been transmitted to humans before.

There is no vaccine against the strain, the commission said, adding it was currently testing to assess its ability to infect humans.

Another strain of bird flu, H5N1, has led to more than 360 confirmed human deaths since 2003 and the deaths of tens of millions of birds.

The World Health Organization says that most avian flu viruses do not infect humans and the majority of H5N1 cases have been associated with contact with infected poultry.


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on April 02, 2013, 08:53:31 pm
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/02/bird-flu-china-new-virus-cases.html
4/2/13

Bird flu cases in China rise after rare virus kills 2

Eastern seaboard cities boost health measures in light of new H7N9 virus


China reported today that four more people in one province were made seriously ill by a bird flu virus new to humans, while cities along the eastern seaboard stepped up public health measures to guard against a disease that has already caused two deaths.

The health bureau of eastern Jiangsu province said in a notice on its website that three women, aged 45, 48 and 32, and an 83-year-old retired man, from different cities in the province, were all critically ill with the H7N9 virus, a diagnosis confirmed by the provincial disease prevention centre. These latest cases are the second batch to be confirmed after three in Anhui province and nearby Shanghai on Sunday.

The H7N9 strain, so named for the combination of proteins on its surface, has previously not been a problem in humans. That compares to the more virulent H5N1 strain, which began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003 and has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close contact with infected birds.

more


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on April 03, 2013, 10:07:39 pm
http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-china-bird-virus-likely-silent-threat-095703617.html
4/3/13
Scientists: China bird virus likely silent threat

BEIJING (AP) — Scientists taking a first look at the genetics of a bird flu strain that has killed three people in China said Wednesday that the virus could be harder to track than its better-known cousin H5N1 because it might be able to spread among poultry without showing any signs.

The scientists, at several research institutes around the world, urged Chinese veterinary authorities to widely test animals and birds in affected regions to quickly detect and eliminate the H7N9 virus before it becomes widespread.

They said the virus is troubling because it can infect poultry without producing any symptoms, while seriously sickening humans. The virus, previously known to have infected only birds, appears to have mutated, enabling it to more easily infect other animals, including pigs, which could serve as hosts and spread the virus more widely among humans, they said.

The findings are preliminary and need further testing.

more


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on April 04, 2013, 07:39:27 am
NEW BIRD FLU STRAIN CAUSES FOURTH DEATH IN CHINA...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_BIRD_FLU?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-04-08-11-06


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on April 04, 2013, 03:01:17 pm
NEW BIRD FLU STRAIN CAUSES FIFTH DEATH IN CHINA...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_BIRD_FLU?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-04-11-26-44


CDC to prepare bird flu vaccine just in caseBy Reuters staff

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday it is monitoring a new strain of bird flu and plans to start preparing a vaccine just in case it is needed.

So far, the new strain of flu known as avian influenza A (H7N9) is only in China and has not yet been found to be capable of being transmitted from person to person.

The CDC said on its website it is following the situation closely and coordinating with domestic and international partners.

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/04/17603189-cdc-to-prepare-bird-flu-vaccine-just-in-case?lite?ocid=twitter

Has to be something to this for them to start a vaccine with just 5 deaths


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Kilika on April 04, 2013, 05:34:43 pm
Field tests.


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on April 05, 2013, 11:58:03 am
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/05/us-birdflu-china-idUSBRE93201G20130405
4/5/13
China culls birds as flu deaths mount; airline shares fall

(Reuters) - Chinese authorities slaughtered over 20,000 birds at a poultry market in Shanghai on Friday as the death toll from a new strain of bird flu mounted to six, spreading concern overseas and sparking a sell-off in airline shares in Europe and Hong Kong.

The local government in Shanghai said the Huhuai market for live birds had been shut down and 20,536 birds had been culled after authorities detected the H7N9 virus from samples of pigeons in the market. Other live poultry markets in the city will be closed down from Saturday, it said.

All the 14 reported infections from the H7N9 bird flu strain have been in eastern China and at least four of the dead are in Shanghai, a city of 23 million people and the showpiece of China's vibrant economy.

more


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on April 07, 2013, 01:47:49 pm
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/07/17641134-number-of-bird-flu-cases-rises-to-20-in-china?lite
4/7/13
Number of bird flu cases rises to 20 in China

BEIJING -- Shanghai has reported two more cases of human infection of a new strain of bird flu, raising the number of cases in eastern China to 20. The death toll among those who contracted the virus remains at six.

Health officials believe people are contracting the H7N9 virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there's no evidence the virus is spreading easily between people.

China's official Xinhua News Agency reported the two new Shanghai cases Sunday, citing local authorities.

Shanghai has been ordered by the agriculture ministry to halt its live poultry trade and slaughter all fowl in markets where the virus has been found.

The capital cities of the neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu also have suspended sales of live poultry. Both provinces have reported H7N9 cases.

more


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on April 09, 2013, 11:24:35 am
Killer bird flu has mutated and may now spread around globe, scientists warn

A DEADLY breakout of bird flu that has already killed six people in China has mutated and could quickly spread around the world, scientists warned today.

It was thought that the H7N9 virus couldn't be passed between animal species and could only be contracted by exposure to infected poultry.

But health officials in Shanghai, who have studied its genetic sequence, believe it has now mutated into a different strain, is spreading much more easily between different animals and may have entered the wider food chain.

That means the virus is much more likely to be transported beyond China and could eventually mutate further into a form which can be passed directly between humans.

Airline stocks plunged around the world amid fears that the virus would wreak havoc on international travel, as the swine flu virus did when it sparked a human pandemic four years ago.

rest: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/389650/Killer-bird-flu-has-mutated-and-may-now-spread-around-globe-scientists-warn?utm


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on April 09, 2013, 07:15:13 pm
Chinese colonel says latest bird flu virus is U.S. biological weapon

A Chinese Air Force officer on Saturday accused the U.S. government of creating the new strain of bird flu now afflicting parts of China as a biological warfare attack.

People’s Liberation Army Sr. Col. Dai Xu said the United States released the H7N9 bird flu virus into China in an act of biological warfare, according to a posting on his blog on Saturday.

The charge was first reported in the state-run Guangzhou newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily and then picked up by several news outlets in Asia.

State Department spokesman Jason Rebholz dismissed the claim. “There is absolutely no truth to these allegations,” he told the Washington Free Beacon.

Seven deaths from the bird flu outbreak were reported as of Tuesday in state-run Chinese media. As many as 24 people reportedly were infected by the disease in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui.

Chinese authorities are trying to calm public fears of a major epidemic, claiming there is no evidence the virus can be transmitted between humans.

The government also is claiming that the outbreak is not related to the recent discovery of thousands of dead pigs floating in a river in China.

The accusation of U.S. biological warfare against China comes as the Pentagon is seeking closer military relations with China. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is set to travel to China for talks with Chinese military leaders later this month.

Dai is a military strategist who in the past has been outspoken in seeking to foment conflict between China and the United States. He told the Global Times in August that China should go to war over U.S. support for Japan’s claims to the disputed Senkaku Islands.

Writing on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site akin to Twitter, Dai stated that the new bird flu strain was designed as a biological weapon similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which he also claimed was developed as a U.S. bio-weapon, that affected the country in 2003.

According to Dai’s posting, the new flu outbreak should not be a cause for concern. “The national leadership should not pay too much attention to it,” the PLA lecturer at the National Defense University wrote. “Or else, it’ll be like in 2003 with SARS!”

“At that time, America was fighting in Iraq and feared that China would take advantage of the opportunity to take other actions,” he said. “This is why they used bio-psychological weapons against China. All of China fell into turmoil and that was exactly what the United States wanted. Now, the United States is using the same old trick. China should have learned its lesson and should calmly deal with the problem.”

Dai said that even if “a few may die” from the flu outbreak, it will not equal one-thousandth of the deaths caused by vehicle accidents in China.

Dai in the past has called for China to punish the United States for U.S. arms sales to rival Taiwan, by selling arms to U.S. enemies. “China recognizes that a few perfunctory protests will not have any effect,” Dai said in 2010. “China can’t directly sanction American arms companies since they did not do business with China … but China can sanction companies that are doing business with China directly, like Boeing or General Electric.”

Dai also has said the United States has used crises with North Korea and offers of cooperation on the issue as a plot to drive a wedge between Beijing and its fraternal communist ally.

Dai also has said U.S. efforts to counter Chinese espionage and intelligence-gathering were part of a U.S. “plot theory” of “western countries threatening others by [releasing] information gained through spying in order to damage the reputations of other countries.”

A State Department official said China notified the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 31 about its first detected human cases of H7N9 infection. Fourteen cases were confirmed by the WHO by April 5, of which six were fatal. The organization said there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

“U.S. Embassy Beijing and U.S. Consulate Shanghai are monitoring the situation, working closely with counterparts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and the Beijing and Shanghai municipal governments,” the official said.

The colonel’s accusation provoked a widespread response on Chinese websites. One post in reaction joked that Dai’s comment about auto deaths must mean that the United States and Germany are responsible for a conspiracy to produce cars, according to a report in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.

Luo Changping, deputy editor of Caijing, said most PLA soldiers would not support Dai’s comments and he urged the colonel to resign and apologize to those who have died from the current bird flu outbreak.

A defiant Dai then said in a new posting Sunday that “it is common knowledge that a group of people in China have been injected with mental toxin by the United States.”

“Now, a group of fake American devils are attacking me,” he wrote in another post. “I will not retreat even half a step.”

Analysts say the colonel’s remarks are a reflection of the growing xenophobic atmosphere within the Chinese military that views the United States as its main enemy.

Former State Department intelligence analyst John Tkacik said China’s military was largely to blame for mishandling the 2003 outbreak of SARS. Tkacik said there was speculation when the epidemic began that “the PLA suspects SARS had emanated from its own biological laboratories and was all the more eager to keep it secret.” China is known to have a covert biological arms program.

“Col. Dai Xu is a shameless liar when he accuses the United States of using bio weapons,” Tkacik told the Free Beacon. “He’s probably motivated by a desire to exculpate the PLA for their mishandling of the epidemic—no doubt most Chinese have happily forgotten the episode—as much as by a cynical xenophobia. But, that’s what passes for deep strategic thought at China’s National Defense University these days.”

The Pentagon has been trying with varying success to develop closer ties to the Chinese military as part of a strategy aimed at building trust. However, China’s military leaders believe the U.S. offers of closer ties are a ruse designed to contain China’s growing military buildup.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke by phone with China’s Defense Minister Gen. Chang Wanquan on April 2. Chang is the No. 4 defense official after Chinese President Xi Jinping and two other generals who run the Central Military Commission, the Communist Party’s ultimate power organ.

“The leaders both expressed their intention to work together to continue to build a military-to-military relationship that serves the vision of both President Obama and President Xi,” Pentagon press secretary George Little said in a statement after the call.

“The secretary discussed the importance of focusing on areas of sustained dialogue, practical areas of cooperation, and risk reducing measures,” he said.

U.S. ties with China are strained due to China’s reluctance to rein in neighboring North Korea.

China provides North Korea with large amounts of fuel oil and other goods. However, Beijing has not taken steps to pressure Pyongyang using its economic leverage during the ongoing crisis.

The flu has lit up China’s thriving Internet, according to analysts. Over 945,600 microblog postings addressed the flu between April 8 and 9. Since the outbreak began some seven days ago, between 1.3 million and 3 million postings were put online on outlets including Sina Weibo and QQ Weibo.

Tens of thousands of users expressed doubts about the official Shanghai municipal government’s denial of any link between the dead pigs found floating last month in the region’s Huangpu River.

The proximity to the initial outbreak in Shanghai and the river has led to speculation that the pig deaths may have been linked to the flu virus jumping from animals to humans.

That speculation was fueled by reports that one of the victims of the flu was a pig butcher.

The avian flu strain is similar to an earlier outbreak with a significant difference: The current strain does not kill the birds it infects, making it more difficult to identify infected poultry.

The Shanghai government waited 20 days before announcing the first H7N9 infection on March 31.

http://freebeacon.com/the-american-flu/


Title: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on April 10, 2013, 06:46:12 pm
http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/agriculture/2013/04/10/new-bird-flu-outbreak-on-western-cape-ostrich-farm

New bird-flu outbreak on Western Cape ostrich farm
by Staff Writer, April 10 2013, 06:54

A TYPE of bird flu has been detected on an ostrich farm near Oudtshoorn, Western Cape agriculture MEC Gerrit van Rensburg said on Tuesday.

"The tests indicated that the causative organism is a H7N1 virus," he said. "The pathogenicity of this virus is still unknown, but samples have been submitted to determine the type."

About 50,000 ostriches have been culled in South Africa since the H5N2 bird-flu virus was detected in the Klein Karoo in April 2011. The industry's biggest buyer, the European Union, imposed an export ban that resulted in losses of more than R1bn. Several farmers culled their entire flocks and laid off all their workers.

The source of the latest infection was not yet clear, but the provincial department had started an "intensive epidemiological investigation", according to Mr van Rensburg.

As a precaution, the MEC has prohibited all movement of ostriches and ostrich products within a 3km radius of the farm where the outbreak occurred. All ostriches in this zone are being quarantined, sampled and tested.

The department’s planned ostrich auction for Wednesday has also been postponed, and the measures will remain in place until further notice.

Mr van Rensburg said the impact of the latest outbreak on the industry’s export hopes would be clearer once the results of the follow-up tests were known.

Ostrich producers have been told to limit the movement of their animals within the area and to report any sick or dead birds to the state veterinarian.

The Cape Argus reported on Tuesday that there was also a new threat from thieves who plucked feathers from live birds at night, with the Western Cape government’s research farm in Oudtshoorn reportedly among the main targets.

Researcher Stefan Engelbrecht told the newspaper the farm was first hit by feather thieves about a month ago and again recently. About 70 birds were plucked and four were bludgeoned to death.




Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on April 14, 2013, 08:25:58 am
China H7N9 flu region spreads: cases rise to 60, including 13 deaths

Eleven new cases of the deadly bird flu H7N9 were found in China today, bringing the total in the country to 60, including 13 deaths, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Two of today’s new cases are in Henan province, the first time that H7N9 has been discovered there. Two new deaths were reported in Shanghai, bringing the number of dead in the city to nine, more than any other city, according to Xinhua figures. Beijing, China’s capital, announced yesterday that it would close markets that sell live poultry and ban live poultry trading in a move to try to halt the spread of the flu after the city’s first H7N9 case was discovered there on Saturday. A seven-year-old girl is Beijing’s first to fall ill; she is hospitalized and reportedly in stable condition. With the disease spreading northward, a geographical spot between Beijing and Henan of note in the coming days may be Shandong province, an important supplier of chicken meat in the country. The closure of live poultry markets in Beijing will put new pressure on a poultry industry that is struggling to handle chickens ready to be sold but have no buyers. China is the world’s No. 2 producer of chicken after the United States. Shanghai has up to 600,000 such chickens, and city processors have been deep freezing them. Eastern Chinese cities where most H7N9 cases have been concentrated have also closed live poultry markets and are taking other precautions to limit the spread of the new virus. China was the epicenter of the SARS epidemic in 2003 which killed several hundred people worldwide. H7N9 has already been hurting affecting China’s poultry and restaurant industries. Among related New York-traded companies, shares in Yum!, which runs the big KFC chain, managed to close up 0.8% on Friday although it said last week same-store KFC sales in China in March fell 16% from a year earlier amid consumer worries about the flu. –Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2013/04/14/h7n9-bird-flu-cases-jump-to-60-in-china-shanghai-reports-two-new-deaths/print/


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on April 17, 2013, 08:29:53 am
Some of the people who have tested positive for bird flu in China have no history of contact with poultry, World Health Organization says - @Reuters

http://www.breakingnews.com/topic/h7n9-bird-flu-cases-in-china


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Kilika on April 17, 2013, 02:58:40 pm
And history shows us that what China reports isn't usually the whole story, so it's likely much worse.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on April 18, 2013, 12:53:46 pm

Bird Flu Spreading in China, 17 Dead

Health officials in China are scrambling to uncover how multiple members of three families in Shanghai and a young boy and girl from neighboring homes in Beijing became infected with a new strain of bird flu.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/bird-flu-spreads-china-unclear/story?id=18987118


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on April 24, 2013, 09:16:08 am
WHO says new bird strain is 'one of most lethal' flu viruses...
http://news.yahoo.com/says-bird-strain-one-most-lethal-flu-viruses-072106064.html

Transmits more easily to humans...
http://news.yahoo.com/says-bird-strain-one-most-lethal-flu-viruses-072106064.html

Taiwan Confirms First H7N9 Case Outside China...
http://www.france24.com/en/20130424-taiwan-confirms-first-h7n9-bird-flu-case-outside-china


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on May 01, 2013, 08:42:52 am
US Health Leader Warns Of Human-To-Human H7N9 Bird Flu

There is no evidence that the deadly H7N9 bird flu has yet spread between humans in China but health authorities must be ready for the virus to mutate at any time, a top US virologist has warned. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said officials in China had studied more than 1,000 close contacts of confirmed cases and not found any evidence of human-to-human transmission. "That is powerful evidence because if you had a thousand contacts with someone with the flu you would be pretty sure some of them would have been infected," Fauci said in an interview with AFP. Nevertheless, Fauci cautioned that authorities needed to be ready for the possibility of the virus mutating and spreading between humans.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130428-us-health-leader-warns-human-human-h7n9-bird-flu


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on May 02, 2013, 09:21:38 am
China Reports 25th Death From H7N9...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-05/02/c_132354473.htm

120 Diagnosed...
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/china-reports-25th-death-from-new-bird-flu/story-fn3dxix6-1226634092359


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on May 02, 2013, 08:45:05 pm
Chinese Scientists Create New Mutant Bird-Flu Virus

In nature, some strains of the influenza virus are highly lethal while others jump easily from person to person. What public health officials fear most is a hybrid that combines the lethality of one with the transmissibility of the other, creating a deadly global pandemic.

Now a team of Chinese scientists has investigated that in their lab by creating a new hybrid virus. They combined H5N1 avian influenza, which is highly lethal but doesn’t transmit easily between people, with the highly contagious H1N1 swine flu strain responsible for infecting tens of millions of people in 2009.


The new hybrid virus passed easily between guinea pigs, which are used to study how flu infects mammals. Molecular changes in the virus may provide clues of what to look for in circulating H5N1 strains, perhaps allowing scientists to anticipate when viruses will more easily infect humans.

“Mammalian-transmissible H5N1 viruses can be generated in nature,” said virologist Chen Hualan at China’s Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, who led the research team. “High attention should be paid during routine influenza surveillance to monitor such high risk H5N1 hybrid viruses in nature.”

The experiments, described May 2 in Science, reflect a controversial approach to studying influenza: attempting to create strains in a lab that would, if accidentally released or used for nefarious purposes, pose a potentially global health threat.

Some scientists think the risks don’t outweigh the benefits, and that institutional safeguards don’t sufficiently reduce chances of accidents. Public unease with such experiments resulted in a year-long moratorium on the research.

According to microbiologist Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, a prominent critic of the work, the new study shows little that wasn’t revealed by an H5N1 experiment published in March by one of the research teams that originally sparked the controversy.

That study, led by virologist Ron Fouchier of Erasmus University in the Netherlands, also showed how H5N1 could become more transmissible in mammals.

“The sole major difference is the use of guinea pigs in this paper and ferrets in that paper,” said Ebright. “In my assessment, neither paper contains substantive new information that justifies the risks posed by the research.”

Hulan’s next research focus is to study the array of genetic changes that allowed his H5N1 strains to infect guinea pigs, perhaps understanding the specific molecular and physiological mechanisms that help particles of flu virus latch onto respiratory cells.

That might give researchers clues about how to interfere with that process, or at least a heads-up on what type of changes to look for in flu strains evolving now in the wild.

“The important thing is that insights from such studies will benefit disease control and prevention,” Hualan said. Both she and Ebright agreed, however, that mutations seen in the laboratory may be different from the evolutionary paths taken by influenza in the wild.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/h5n1-h1n1-reassortment/


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on May 02, 2013, 08:46:19 pm
'Appalling irresponsibility': Senior scientists attack Chinese researchers for creating new strains of influenza virus in veterinary laboratory

Experts warn of danger that the new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of people.


Senior scientists have criticised the “appalling irresponsibility” of researchers in China who have deliberately created new strains of influenza virus in a veterinary laboratory.

They warned there is a danger that the new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of people.

Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientist and past president of the Royal Society, denounced the study published today in the journal Science as doing nothing to further the understanding and prevention of flu pandemics.

“They claim they are doing this to help develop vaccines and such like. In fact the real reason is that they are driven by blind ambition with no common sense whatsoever,” Lord May told The Independent.

“The record of containment in labs like this is not reassuring. They are taking it upon themselves to create human-to-human transmission of very dangerous viruses. It’s appallingly irresponsible,” he said.

The controversial study into viral mixing was carried out by a team led by Professor Hualan Chen, director of China’s National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory at Harbin Veterinary Research Institute.

Professor Chen and her colleagues deliberately mixed the H5N1 bird-flu virus, which is highly lethal but not easily transmitted between people, with a 2009 strain of H1N1 flu virus, which is very infectious to humans.

When flu viruses come together by infecting the same cell they can swap genetic material and produce “hybrids” through the re-assortment of genes. The researchers were trying to emulate what happens in nature when animals such as pigs are co-infected with two different strains of virus, Professor Chen said.

“The studies demonstrated that H5N1 viruses have the potential to acquire mammalian transmissibility by re-assortment with the human influenza viruses,” Professor Chen said in an email.

“This tells us that high attention should be paid to monitor the emergence of such mammalian-transmissible virus in nature to prevent a possible pandemic caused by H5N1 virus,” she said.

“It is difficult to say how easy this will happen, but since the H5N1 and 2009/H1N1 viruses are widely existing in nature, they may have a chance to re-assort,” she added.

The study, which was carried out in a laboratory with the second highest security level to prevent accidental escape, resulted in 127 different viral hybrids between H5N1 and H1N1, five of which were able to pass by airborne transmission between laboratory guinea pigs.

Professor Simon Wain-Hobson, an eminent virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said it is very likely that some or all of these hybrids could pass easily between humans and possess some or all of the highly lethal characteristics of H5N1 bird-flu.

“Nobody can extrapolate to humans except to conclude that the five viruses would probably transmit reasonable well between humans,” Professor Wain-Hobson said.

“We don’t know the pathogenicity [lethality] in man and hopefully we will never know. But if the case fatality rate was between 0.1 and 20 per cent, and a pandemic affected 500 million people, you could estimate anything between 500,000 and 100 million deaths,” he said.

“It’s a fabulous piece of virology by the Chinese group and it’s very impressive, but they haven’t been thinking clearly about what they are doing. It’s very worrying,” Professor Wain-Hobson said.

“The virological basis of this work is not strong. It is of no use for vaccine development and the benefit in terms of surveillance for new flu viruses is oversold,” he added.

An increasing number of scientists outside the influenza field have expressed concern over attempts to deliberately increase the human transmissibility of the H5N1 bird-flu virus. This is done by mutating the virus so that it can pass by airborne droplets between laboratory ferrets, the standard “animal model” of human influenza.

Two previous studies, by Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam and Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, caused uproar in 2011 when it emerged that they had created airborne versions of H5N1 that could be passed between ferrets.

The criticism led to researchers to impose a voluntary moratorium on their H5N1 research, banning transmission studies using ferrets. However they decided to lift the ban earlier this year, arguing that they have now consulted widely with health organisations and the public over safety concerns.

However, other scientists have criticised the decision to lift the moratorium.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/appalling-irresponsibility-senior-scientists-attack-chinese-researchers-for-creating-new-strains-of-influenza-virus-in-veterinary-laboratory-8601658.html


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Kilika on May 03, 2013, 04:39:06 pm
Quote
The researchers were trying to emulate what happens in nature when animals such as pigs are co-infected with two different strains of virus, Professor Chen said.

Are we seeing the real reason for all those thousands of dead pigs in China? Hmm.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on May 07, 2013, 09:26:52 pm
China bird flu death toll rises to 31
5/7/13
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/07/18108045-china-bird-flu-death-toll-rises-to-31?lite=

Four more people in China have died from a new strain of bird flu, bringing to 31 the number of deaths from the mysterious H7N9 virus, with the number of infections rising by two to 129, according to Chinese health authorities.

Among the deaths, two occurred in the eastern province of Jiangsu; one was from eastern Zhejiang; while another was from central Anhui, based on a Reuters analysis of the data provided by Chinese health authorities on Monday.

The government did not provide more details of the victims.

Chinese health authorities said two new infections were reported in the eastern coastal province of Fujian. The virus, which was mostly concentrated in the region around the commercial capital of Shanghai, spread to Fujian in late April.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) has said it has no evidence that the new strain of bird flu, which was first detected in patients in China in March, is easily transmissible between humans.

Chinese scientists have confirmed that the H7N9 strain has been transmitted to humans from chickens. But the WHO has said 40 percent of people infected with H7N9 appear to have had no contact with poultry.

The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the current strain of bird flu cannot spark a pandemic in its current form - but he added that there is no guarantee it will not mutate and cause a serious pandemic.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on May 11, 2013, 09:01:41 am
H7N9 kills 1 in Shanghai

SHANGHAI, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The H7N9 bird flu killed one person in Shanghai Friday, local health authorities said Saturday, bringing the nationwide death toll to 33.
 
An 83-year-old woman surnamed Jiang died Friday evening in a local hospital one month after her infection was confirmed, the Shanghai Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission announced.
 
As of 5 p.m. Saturday, Shanghai has confirmed 33 H7N9 cases. Four of them are being treated in the hospital, 15 have recovered and 14 others died.
 
Since China confirmed the first human infections with the bird flu virus in late March, the country has so far reported 130 confirmed H7N9 cases, including 33 deaths.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/health/2013-05/11/c_132375363.htm


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on May 19, 2013, 03:22:29 pm
http://www.globalmeatnews.com/Industry-Markets/Bird-flu-outbreaks-in-Mexico-and-Tibet
5/15/13
Bird flu outbreaks in Mexico and Tibet

Article says 55,000 birds had been slaughtered on the farm.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on May 19, 2013, 03:24:56 pm
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/poultrynews/28984/new-outbreak-of-lowpath-bird-flu-in-lower-saxony
New Outbreak of Low-Path Bird Flu in Lower Saxony
17 May 2013

GERMANY - A new outbreak of low-pathogenic avian influenza A(H7N7) has been reported at a farm in Lower Saxony.

The veterinary authority sent an Immediate Notification dated 16 May to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

The report describes one outbreak of avian flu on a farm at Langförden near Vechta in Lower Saxony. It started on 15 May. All 13,000 birds in the flock were destroyed after the sub-clinical infection was confirmed.

The last outbreak of this virus type in Germany was in August 2011.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on May 23, 2013, 05:55:43 am
Evolving: Deadly H7N9 virus develops drug-resistance to Tamiflu

With new H7N9 cases waning, the worst thing humans can do right now is let their guard down about the potential dangers of this deadly new virus. The microbe is always mutating and evolving, as a virulent living force of nature and natural selection.

May 20, 2013 – TAIPEI, Taiwan - The only H7N9 patient so far in Taiwan was carrying two strains of the same virus, with one being drug resistant and the other not, making it tricky to treat to him, doctors said. Huang Li-min, a doctor from National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), explained that it was possible the avian flu virus was not drug resistant when the patient was first infected, but mutated later to become resistant to Tamiflu. With Tamiflu failing, NTUH later switched to another intravenous drug, Huang said. Because of the presence of the two strains simultaneously, it was difficult for doctors to determine how much the virus’ drug resistance had undermined the therapy Chou Chi-hao, deputy director-general of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said it is natural for viruses to mutate, saying the H1N1 flu strain mutated after infecting human beings. But Huang said H7N9 has limited chances of human-to-human transmission through respiratory secretions because the virus has difficulty surviving the environments of human upper respiratory systems. Patients do not have symptoms of a runny nose or sneezing. The patient, surnamed Lee, got sick on April 12, three days after returning from a business trip in China. His condition was initially critical, but has improved much. He has already been transferred from the intensive care unit to an ordinary ward at NTUH. The findings by the NTUH and CDC about H7N9 are to be published in a local medical journal next month. Resistance is of concern in the scenario of an influenza pandemic (Wong and Yuen 2005), and may be more likely to develop in avian influenza than seasonal influenza due to the potentially longer duration of infection by novel viruses. –Your Health

http://yourhealth.asiaone.com/content/h7n9-case-has-drug-and-non-resistant-strains



Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on May 27, 2013, 07:15:31 am
H7N9 bird flu and swine flu can 'combine and mutate'
 New strain from flu in birds and pigs could become pandemic threat, HKU researchers warn


The H7N9 bird flu virus may combine with the swine flu and mutate into a new virus strain, a University of Hong Kong research team warns.
 
The team's study, reported by the South China Morning Post yesterday, confirmed that the bird flu could be transmitted through the air and suggested it might already be spreading among humans.

"It is possible that this virus can evolve further to form the basis of a future pandemic threat,"  said Maria Zhu Huachen, an assistant professor of research at HKU's school of public health.
 
The team, which officially announced their findings yesterday, discovered that both ferrets and pigs could contract H7N9.
 
Zhu said the more time sick chickens and pigs spent in close contact, the greater the likelihood of the two viruses - the bird flu and swine flu - combining and mutating into a new virus strain.
 
"A major intervention is to separate pigs and chickens in the market to minimise the risk of the virus spreading to the pig," said HKU virologist Guan Yi.
 
The team found that, compared with the swine flu, H7N9 spread less easily between species and was also transmitted less efficiently.
 
The virus can spread from ferret to ferret or from pig to pig, but is inefficient in spreading from pigs to other mammals.
 
But the study also suggested that it was possible for a larger human population to have already contracted the disease - although the symptoms they suffered might be mild.
 
"As the virus can be spread among ferrets, it's possible it can be transmitted among humans [too]. Ferrets are the best model for the study in human influenza as [they are] very similar to humans," Zhu said.
 
"It's possible there may already be some hidden cases spreading among humans. Some animals infected by H7N9 do not develop fever and other clinical signs, indicating that asymptomatic infections among humans are [also] possible."
 
The team's tests on ferrets found that the virus could be spread among the animals through both direct contact and airborne exposure.
 
In one test, all three ferrets kept together in a cage with an infected ferret contracted the virus within two days.
 
The animals developed symptoms such as fever, sneezing, coughing and reduced activity for about five to seven days before their antibodies kicked in, the study showed.
 
In another test with ferrets kept in different cages, one of three ferrets was infected through airborne exposure within two days.
 
But that ferret developed milder symptoms of the flu. Zhu said the milder symptoms were a result of a lower toxic level of the virus.
 
In contrast, swine flu virus attacked all ferrets through close contact and airborne exposure within a few days.
 
As well as maintaining monitoring of birds, Guan said surveillance of pigs was also necessary to prevent further spreading of the epidemic.
 
The bird flu has affected 131 people and killed 36, according to the World Health Organisation.

map + story: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1245490/h7n9-bird-flu-and-swine-flu-can-combine-and-mutate-hku-researchers


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on June 15, 2013, 05:36:49 pm
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/H1N1_flu_cases_up_sharply_in_Venezuela_999.html
6/12/13
H1N1 flu cases up sharply in Venezuela

The number of H1N1 swine flu cases rose sharply in Venezuela during the last week of May, the health ministry said Wednesday, refusing to disclose whether any deaths have been linked to the outbreak.

Health Minister Isabel Iturria, explaining why deaths would not be reported, blamed "political or economic interests" for creating alarm over the outbreak.

The ministry said there were 414 new cases of H1N1 in the week from May 26 to June 1, pushing the total number of cases from 724 to 1,138.

The virus was detected for the first time in Venezuela in 2009.

The current outbreak has surpassed one in 2011 that resulted in 900 cases and eight deaths.

Venezuela has been fiercely polarized since Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of a disputed election in April to replace his mentor, the late leftist leader Hugo Chavez. The centrist opposition has contested the results.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on June 18, 2013, 05:31:23 pm
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-17/jaipur/40027168_1_swine-flu-highest-deaths-rajasthan
6/17/13

'Swine flu claimed 161 lives so far'

TNN Jun 17, 2013, 02.07AM IST

JAIPUR: Rajasthan reported second highest number of swine flu deaths this year. Highest deaths were reported in Gujarat.

According to the figures of the health ministry, swine flu claimed 161 lives in the beginning of the year in the state. In Gujarat, 194 persons died of swine flu.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Kilika on June 19, 2013, 03:13:08 am
Not to belittle people getting sick and dying, but come on, 161 people out of a planet with nearly 7 BILLION?

WAY too much fear being pushed on people.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on August 07, 2013, 01:41:42 pm
Bird flu strain in China 'passed between humans'

Researchers have reported the first case of human-to-human transmission of the new strain of bird flu that has emerged in China.



The British Medical Journal said a 32-year-old woman was infected after caring for her father. Both later died.

Until now there had been no evidence of anyone catching the H7N9 virus other than after direct contact with birds.

But experts stressed it does not mean the virus has developed the ability to spread easily between humans.

By 30 June there had been 133 cases of H7N9 bird flu reported in eastern China and 43 deaths.

Most people had visited live poultry markets or had close contact with live poultry in the week or two before they became ill.

Intensive care
 
Yet researchers found that the 32-year-old woman had become infected in March after caring for her 60-year-old father in hospital.

Unlike her father - who had visited a poultry market in the week before falling ill - she had no known exposure to live poultry but fell ill six days after her last contact with him.

Both died in intensive care of multiple organ failure.

Tests on the virus taken from both patients showed the strains were almost genetically identical, which supports the theory that the daughter was infected directly from her father rather than another source.

Public health officials tested 43 close contacts of the patients but all tested negative for H7N9, suggesting the ability of the virus to spread was limited.

The researchers said that while there was no evidence to suggest the virus had gained the ability to spread from person to person efficiently, this was the first case of a "probable transmission" from human to human.

'Strong warning sign'
 
"Our findings reinforce that the novel virus possesses the potential for pandemic spread," they concluded.

Dr James Rudge, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that limited transmission between humans is not surprising and has been seen before in other bird flu viruses, such as H5N1.

He added: "It would be a worry if we start to see longer chains of transmission between people, when one person infects someone else, who in turn infects more people, and so on.

"And particularly if each infected case goes on to infect, on average, more than one other person, this would be a strong warning sign that we might be in the early stages of an epidemic."

An accompanying editorial in the BMJ, co-authored by Dr Rudge, concluded that while this study might not suggest that H7N9 is any closer to delivering the next pandemic, "it does provide a timely reminder of the need to remain extremely vigilant".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23594392


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Kilika on August 07, 2013, 04:21:34 pm
Quote
"Our findings reinforce that the novel virus possesses the potential for pandemic spread," they concluded.

In other words, testing complete, on to full scale production. ::)


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on August 17, 2013, 12:52:23 pm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-16/half-a-million-chickens-to-be-culled-near-kathmandu/4891046
Nepal to cull 500,000 chickens near Kathmandu to combat major bird flu outbreak
8/16/13

Half a million chickens are to be culled in a district on the outskirts of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, as efforts to combat a major outbreak of bird flu are stepped up.

Tens of thousands of birds have already been killed in what government officials have described as one of the country's worst outbreaks of avian flu.

Now authorities in the Himalayan nation have declared the area of Bhaktapur an emergency zone.

Some 62 cases of bird flu have been recorded at 250 poultry farms in three districts in the past few weeks, officials said.

A spokesman for the Directorate of Animal Health said the government ordered the cull to be stepped up after a week-long ban imposed on the sales of poultry products failed to control the H5N1 virus.

"We could not control it (the outbreak) because the supply of poultry products continued despite the ban," Narayan Ghimire said.

"Now, the poultry farmers have joined us in our battle. We are sure we will control it."

Nepal's first outbreak of bird flu was in January 2009.

H5N1, a common strain of bird flu, has killed 377 people globally between 2003 until July 5 this year, according to the World Health Organisation.

No human deaths from bird flu have been reported in Nepal.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on September 03, 2013, 08:21:21 am
Japan to begin producing vaccine for H7N9 bird flu

A panel of experts at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will start producing a vaccine for the H7N9 strain of avian influenza, following a number of reported cases of human infections in China.

 The ministry will base the vaccine on a vaccine strain produced by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, while seeking cooperation from vaccine makers. Production work will start within this month, at the earliest.

 The ministry will first test the vaccine on animals and then decide whether to conduct clinical trials on humans after examining the results.

 It remains unclear when production will be completed because it is difficult to make a vaccine that can provide immunity against H7 type flu viruses, according to officials at the ministry.

 No human-to-human spread of the H7N9 flu has been confirmed so far, but experts warn that genetic mutations in the virus could increase transmissions between humans and could lead to a pandemic.

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000547427


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on September 03, 2013, 11:35:12 am
Problem. Reaction. Solution.


Title: Hong Kong confirms first case of H7N9 bird flu
Post by: Mark on December 03, 2013, 07:54:57 am
Hong Kong confirms first case of H7N9 bird flu

Hong Kong has confirmed its first case of the new strain of the H7N9 bird flu in a domestic worker from Indonesia.

The worker, 36, recently travelled to Shenzhen in the mainland and came into contact with live poultry. She is in critical condition, officials say.

H7N9 has infected more than 100 people since it emerged earlier this year.

The case in Hong Kong is a sign that the virus may be spreading beyond mainland China, where most infections have been reported, and Taiwan.

The World Health Organization (WHO) had said there was "no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission", but also described H7N9 as an "unusually dangerous virus".

At least 139 human cases of H7N9 have been confirmed, including 45 deaths, WHO says in a statement dated 6 November.

At least one case was confirmed in Taiwan in April.

Dr Ko Wing-man, Hong Kong's food and health secretary, confirmed the territory's first H7N9 case late on Monday.

He said that the patient "has a history of travelling to Shenzhen, buying a chicken, slaughtering and eating the chicken".

"She is now in critical condition at Queen Mary Hospital," he said, adding that four people in close contact with her were showing signs of flu-like symptoms.

Hong Kong is now on public health alert and has suspended the import of live chickens from some farms across the border with the mainland.

H7N9 is a type of influenza virus that normally circulates among birds and has not until recently been seen in people, the WHO says.

"There is no indication thus far that it can be transmitted between people, but both animal-to-human and human-to-human routes of transmission are being actively investigated," the organisation adds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25181387


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on December 17, 2013, 09:46:13 am
Second new H7N9 bird flu case in 2 days hits Guangdong province - @SCMP_News

https://twitter.com/SCMP_News


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013
Post by: Mark on December 18, 2013, 11:12:47 am
New Bird Flu Strain Detected in China

The strain of the virus, H10N8, was not previously known to infect humans


A woman in eastern China was confirmed to have been carrying a new strain of the bird flu, after she died of respiratory failure earlier this month, Chinese health officials announced Wednesday.
 
The 73-year-old woman, who was living in the Jiangxi Province and died on Dec. 6, was confirmed to have been carrying the H10N8 strain of the bird flu, which had previously not been known to infect humans.

rest: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/12/18/new-bird-flu-strain-detected-in-china


Title: Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County
Post by: Mark on December 18, 2013, 11:13:55 am
Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas -- Officials with the Montgomery County Health Department are on a mission to find out more about a mystery flu-like illness.
 
So far, half of the people who have come down with it have died.
 
According to the health department, all of the patients have had flu-like and/or pneumonia like symptoms. However, all of them have tested negative for the flu.
 
There have been eight confirmed patients ranging in age from 41 to 68. Four of those patients have died.
 
Sources told WFAA sister station KHOU that two of the surviving patients are being treated at Conroe Regional Medical Center and are “very sick."
 
Those sources said doctors are being advised to use extra precaution to prevent this from spreading.
 
It’s unclear if any of the patients had pre-existing conditions.
 
The Montgomery County Health Department is waiting on more conclusive test results. Officials are hoping they will have more answers in the days to come.

http://www.wfaa.com/news/health/236215121.html


Title: Re: Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on December 18, 2013, 11:18:52 am
Yeah, seeing more and more reports over this - probably a trial run over things to come. Even "NCIS" last night had an episode over this.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Mark on December 19, 2013, 07:02:19 am
Health official urges caution as more H7N9 cases reported in China

People traveling to China should take health precautions as 10 more H7N9 avian flu cases have been reported there since October, Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center said Tuesday. There have been 142 confirmed cases of the H7N9 virus in China since the outbreak began at the end of March, he said. Of those patients, 47 have died. 

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201312170005.aspx


Title: Re: Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County
Post by: Mark on December 20, 2013, 06:16:44 am
MYSTERY ILLNESS KILLS ALEX JONES’ FAMILY MEMBER & SICKENED MORE OF THEM..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPZbcgV7E74&feature=player_embedded

Is there a man-made mystery illness spreading in Texas? We post an article yesterday about a mystery illness killed 4 out of 8 patients in Montgomery county Texas! (Mystery Illness claims 4 lives in Texas) Today we found this video from Alex Jones saying one of his family member (his cousin) got sick and then died the next day! Alex Jones other family members also are sick with unknown illness.
 
No one knows what this mystery illness is.  Officials from the health department claimed they don’t want to scare the public but they have no clue what this mystery illness is but they are  taking this very seriously! How can the public not scared when an unknown illness killed 4 out 8 of the patients while the rest of the 4 are in serious condition? Why are all the doctors have no clue what it is?  We can put a robot on Mars, but we have no solution for a flu-like illness that kills?    Where did this Mystery Illness come from?
 
Be safe, be careful & be prepared!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dxojmWm7hnM

http://www.preppersworldusa.com/2013/12/19/mystery-illness-kills-alex-jones-family-member-man-made-mystery-illness/


Title: Re: Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County
Post by: Mark on December 20, 2013, 06:45:10 am
North Texas man dies of swine flu; could be 'mystery illness' from Houston

Looking at photographs shown at her husband's funeral is so very hard for Ashley Wright.
 
"He was too young,” she said. "I should not be a widow at 30... So it's pretty devastating."
 
Dustin Wright, 30, came down with flu-like symptoms just before Thanksgiving. Ashley said he seemed to be getting better, before taking a sudden turn for the worse.
 
"Every breath was a struggle for him,” she recalled. “Every single breath. And I woke him up at 11:30, and his lips were purple and his fingers were purple, and he was like a green color -- like he was just changing colors."
 
Ashley said she insisted they go immediately to the emergency room. Dustin was admitted to Baylor Grapevine on Nov. 25, placed on life support in the ICU, and strapped into a rotating bed that helps break up fluid in the lungs from pneumonia.
 
At first, flu tests were inconclusive.
 
"The second time they checked him, he came back positive for Influenza A, Influenza B,” Wright said.
 
Dustin suffered kidney failure, which has been associated with severe cases of H1N1 Type A, or swine flu. He had no known underlying medical conditions.
 
His case has many similarities to cases in Montgomery County that puzzled doctors this week. Of eight cases in that county, four patients have died.
 
Wednesday afternoon, Montgomery County health officials said one surviving patient tested positive for H1N1. Two other surviving patients tested negative for H1N1 and results are still pending for the fourth.
 
"So what we're doing now is we're retesting those patients who tested negative from the private lab," Montgomery County Medical Director Dr. Mark Escott said. "And those samples will be sent to the state and the CDC for confirmation testing."
 
The illnesses started with flu-like symptoms, then progressed to pneumonia and, in some cases, organ failure. They all initially tested negative for the flu.
 
The mother of one of the patients who died in Montgomery County, which is north of Houston, spoke to WFAA sister station KHOU Wednesday.
 
She said her son, Dathany Reed, wasn’t feeling well on Thanksgiving and went to see doctors, who sent him home with several prescriptions. He was admitted to the hospital’s emergency room the next day and ended up on life support. Dathany’s 41st birthday came and went on November 30 while his kidneys and other organs deteriorated.
 
Family members said goodbye to the father of three on Dec. 5, a week after he went to the emergency room.
 
Dustin Wright died 10 days after being admitted to the hospital.
 
He had not gotten a flu shot. H1N1 is one of the viruses included in this year's shot.
 
"I'll never look at this the same ever again for sure,” Ashley said. “Always just get your flu shot, because you never know."
 
Adult influenza deaths do not need to be reported to the county health department, so precise numbers of North Texas deaths from influenza are unknown. Pediatric deaths, by law, must be reported.
 
Children and pregnant women were more susceptible to serious complications from H1N1 swine flu during the outbreak in 2009.
 
Dustin Wright was 30 years old. He leaves behind a wife who loves him, and a 9-year-old son he called his "best friend."

http://www.khou.com/news/texas-news/North-Texas-man-dies-of-swine-flu-could-be-mystery-illness-from-Houston-236558201.html


Title: Re: Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on December 20, 2013, 09:40:51 am
Quote
She said her son, Dathany Reed, wasn’t feeling well on Thanksgiving and went to see doctors, who sent him home with several prescriptions. He was admitted to the hospital’s emergency room the next day and ended up on life support. Dathany’s 41st birthday came and went on November 30 while his kidneys and other organs deteriorated.

 ??? This doesn't make sense at all.

Quote
He had not gotten a flu shot. H1N1 is one of the viruses included in this year's shot.
 
"I'll never look at this the same ever again for sure,” Ashley said. “Always just get your flu shot, because you never know."

Matthew_24:4  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

This right here is more fearmongering and propaganda from the NWO MSM establishment - to get everyone to get their "flu shots". Don't take the bait!

As for Alex Jones' cousin dying and his other family members getting sick...I'm not trying to call him a liar, but nonetheless keep in mind Jones is Jesuit trained. Just saying.

BTW - one of the movie channels I have(HBO) is rolling out the 1995 movie "Outbreak" now. I remember seeing the movie back then when it came out(and saw it again last night) - it was just about that, a major "pandemic" hitting the country.


Title: Re: Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County
Post by: Mark on December 20, 2013, 12:02:36 pm
UPDATE – 6 H1N1 Deaths, 14 Critically Ill (Video)

News broke that the “mystery” illness causing deaths in Texas has now been linked to the H1N1 virus, otherwise known as the Swine Flu and according to this KHOU report, 14 more people are critically ill in the greater Houston area.
 
Via KVUE:
 
This is the same strain of H1N1 that caused a pandemic in 2009. Doctors have been seeing hundreds of new cases recently in Texas and nationwide. In fact, H1N1 is one of the viruses included in this year’s flu shot.
 
More from WFAA:
 
At least 14 people have become critically ill in Harris, Montgomery and Jefferson counties, including the four patients at Conroe Regional Medical Center.
 
It is unclear if the death of the youngest of fatalities, 30 year old Dustin Wright from Euless, which is in Northern Texas, is included in the number of deaths being reported in the other stories, but it appears he isn’t, which would bring the total of deaths technically to 7, since it is being reported that he died of H1N1.
 
[Update] It is also unclear if the recent report from Alex Jones that members of his family are sick and have died are from the same illness or not, that report can he found here from Before It’s News reporter Live Free or Die.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tdzp_8oX5WA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmt-dUGV_WM&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONRsUDmeCnE&feature=player_embedded

http://beforeitsnews.com/health/2013/12/6-deaths-linked-to-h1n1-14-critically-ill-video-2516424.html


Title: Re: Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on December 20, 2013, 01:14:42 pm
Quote
[Update] It is also unclear if the recent report from Alex Jones that members of his family are sick and have died are from the same illness or not, that report can he found here from Before It’s News reporter Live Free or Die.

Like said, not trying to call Alex a liar, but he says it happened, but contrary reports cannot confirm it?

With that being said - they are really going overdrive now to push vaccinations.


Title: Re: Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on December 20, 2013, 01:25:55 pm
Saw the videos - it's a "mystery" illness? How can they *not* know?

Yeah, it's very obvious they are pushing vaccinations in overdrive now with this fearmongering.


Title: Re: Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County
Post by: Kilika on December 20, 2013, 01:26:35 pm
From Alex himself about his family and friends...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPZbcgV7E74 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPZbcgV7E74)


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Mark on December 27, 2013, 08:28:28 am
Austin H1N1 ECMO Machines Maxed Out
Recombinomics Commentary 12:00
December 26, 2013

Seton officials say in the last two weeks the number of flu patients doubled from about 200 to 400 confirmed cases. And five patients with the H1N1 virus were put on a special heart-lung machine to help them breathe.

Weingarten says the procedure is complex and often requires a team of over 35 physicians, nurses, perfusionists, and respiratory therapists for each individual ECMO case, which does not include the team of lab technicians that provide critical life-saving patient information. Patients require 24-hour care while they are connected to the device, which may last a few days or several weeks.

The above comments are from media reports of a press conference at Seton Medical Center on December 24, updating the H1N 1 situation in Austin, Texas (see map), which serves central Texas, with a modern center that includes 5 EMCO machines, which require significant resources, as noted above.

EMCO machines are used for H1N1 patients who can no long breathe on their own or oxygenate their blood.  These functions are assumed by the ECMO machine in a last ditch effort to allow the patient to repair the extensive lung damage and associated complications.

The presentations cited a case in 2012 who was 8 months pregnant when infected with H1N1.  After delivery of a healthy baby by C-section the patient recovered after four weeks on an ECMO machine.  As noted above in the current outbreak, five patients were hooked up to the five machines at Seton (and a sixth machine was kept in reserve to substitute for a machine that loses functionality during treatment).  One of those five cases had been recently taken off the machine, but as noted above, the number of flu patients has doubled in the past week, raising concerns that the ECMO resource will be taxed significantly.

The five patients were between ages in the 20’s to 50’s (1 twenties, 3 forties, 1 fifties) and did not have pre-existing conditions, other than obesity.  In addition to the five adult patients on ECMO machines, one child (10M) had just come off an ECMO machine at the affiliated Dell Children’s Hospital.  In addition to the six cases cited above, two pregnant women had died, and many additional middle age and young adults were in ICUs at Austin area hospitals.

This concentration of severe H1N1 cases in the Austin area has raised concerns that the current outbreak will be more severe than 2009.  Although adult deaths are not reportable, a Texas summary of H1N1 in 2009-2010 cited 240 deaths in Texas, which was concentrated in cases <65.  The current outbreak is clearly targeting this population, raising concerns that the virus has drifted away from the 2009 version, leading to its dominance in Texas and across North America.

The early numbers in Austin raise concerns that these cases will tax health care delivery.  There have already been shortages on vaccine and Tamiflu reported in the area.  Both items are not in short supply nationwide, and the current demand in Austin has led to delays in distribution, but there a no nationwide or statewide shortages at this time.
However, the 2013 outbreak is about 3 months behind 2009, raising concerns that the current outbreak will peak in February, when conditions favor the spread of influenza.

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/12261301/H1N1_Austin_ECMO_Max.html


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on December 27, 2013, 02:38:23 pm
Quote
The five patients were between ages in the 20’s to 50’s (1 twenties, 3 forties, 1 fifties) and did not have pre-existing conditions, other than obesity.  In addition to the five adult patients on ECMO machines, one child (10M) had just come off an ECMO machine at the affiliated Dell Children’s Hospital.  In addition to the six cases cited above, two pregnant women had died, and many additional middle age and young adults were in ICUs at Austin area hospitals.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The early numbers in Austin raise concerns that these cases will tax health care delivery.  There have already been shortages on vaccine and Tamiflu reported in the area.  Both items are not in short supply nationwide, and the current demand in Austin has led to delays in distribution, but there a no nationwide or statewide shortages at this time.
However, the 2013 outbreak is about 3 months behind 2009, raising concerns that the current outbreak will peak in February, when conditions favor the spread of influenza.

Looks like they are working overtime to get everyone to get these vaccines. Be ye not deceived!

The five patients were between ages in the 20’s to 50’s (1 twenties, 3 forties, 1 fifties) and did not have pre-existing conditions, other than obesity.  In addition to the five adult patients on ECMO machines, one child (10M) had just come off an ECMO machine at the affiliated Dell Children’s Hospital.  In addition to the six cases cited above, two pregnant women had died, and many additional middle age and young adults were in ICUs at Austin area hospitals.

This concentration of severe H1N1 cases in the Austin area has raised concerns that the current outbreak will be more severe than 2009.  Although adult deaths are not reportable, a Texas summary of H1N1 in 2009-2010 cited 240 deaths in Texas, which was concentrated in cases <65.  The current outbreak is clearly targeting this population, raising concerns that the virus has drifted away from the 2009 version, leading to its dominance in Texas and across North America.

Quote
The early numbers in Austin raise concerns that these cases will tax health care delivery.  There have already been shortages on vaccine and Tamiflu reported in the area.  Both items are not in short supply nationwide, and the current demand in Austin has led to delays in distribution, but there a no nationwide or statewide shortages at this time.
However, the 2013 outbreak is about 3 months behind 2009, raising concerns that the current outbreak will peak in February, when conditions favor the spread of influenza.

And this is happening in Alex Jones' backyard?


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on December 27, 2013, 03:07:25 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj9SUJdpJS4


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on January 02, 2014, 07:40:46 pm
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/12/26/deadly-flu-could-make-its-way-to-chicago-region-doctors-say/
12/26/13
H1N1 Flu Virus Surfaces In Chicago

(CBS) – Nearly two dozen cases of the potentially deadly H1N1 flu virus have been confirmed in the Chicago area, CBS 2 has learned.

Finding the flu virus among patients at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood is keeping special machines working overtime right now. Seven patients at Loyola tested positive for Influenza A on Christmas Eve. Five of them had the H1N1 strain known as swine flu.

They’ve detected a sudden burst of the 2009 swine flu spreading right here in the Chicago area. Microbiologist Paul Schreckenberger says last week alone, 21 patients tested positive for Influenza A. All but one of those cases were the 2009 H1N1 swine flu.

“We don’t know why it’s emerging,” Schreckenberger says.

**Look at the buzzword "emerging"(ie-like the Emergent Church).

He says people may have gotten a false sense of security over the last couple of flu seasons, which were comparatively mild.

In Texas, the rush is on for flu shots. The very flu shots that Texans Dustin Wright, and his wife, Ashley, never received.

Dustin was hit with H1N1 flu strain, or swine flu, and he died Dec. 5.

“You don’t think it will happen to you,” Ashley says.

H1N1 is causing 80 percent of the flu infections this year in Texas. It’s the same strain that triggered a nationwide pandemic in 2009. But at that time, it was new. Now, it’s not, and the current flu vaccine offers protection.

“That really is, in terms of prevention and protection, the best method, in terms of reducing transmission or spread of influenza,” Rush University Medical Center physician Alexander Tomich says.

But remember, it takes two weeks after you get the shot to build up the anti-bodies that provide protection from the flu. So, the earlier you get it the better.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, less than half of all Americans get a flu shot each year.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on January 02, 2014, 07:49:37 pm
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/article/276966/2/Infant-dies-from-H1N1-flu-case-increasing
Infant dies from H1N1, flu cases increasing
12/27/13

Lansing, Mich. (FREEP) A central Michigan infant has died of H1N1 as flu season begins to sweep the state and public health officials step up their calls for vaccination.

Earlier today, the Michigan Department of Community Health upgraded the level of flu activity from "local" to "regional" because flu cases have been reported throughout more areas of the state. The uptick of cases reflects a national surge as well, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"H1N1 seems to be rearing its ugly head this year," said Bob Swanson, director of the immunization division of the Michigan Department of Community Health. "We want to head that off, and the only way to do that is with the vaccine."

Last season, flu killed seven Michigan children, the highest number since 2004, when reporting such deaths became mandatory.

And public health officials said they've noticed that H1N1, one of the most widely circulated strains this year, seems to target young and middle-age adults - a demographic that might feel immune to the worst effects of flu.

Very often, flu season is most deadly for the very young, elderly people and those with underlying health conditions.

The actual number of flu cases is impossible to know. Most aren't required to be reported.

But at least 45 people had been hospitalized for suspected flu by today in eight Michigan hospitals that report data as part of the state's surveillance effort.

As holiday gatherings continue, those numbers are expected to increase.

"We really encourage people to stay home over the holidays if they're sick, but that's the time people don't want to miss out on visiting," said Oakland County's health officer, Kathy Forzley.

"We're probably still on the upswing of cases," said Susan Peters, a state epidemiologist.

Last year, about 40.8% of Michiganders older than 6 months were vaccinated, lower than the national average of 45%, the state health department's Swanson said.

This year, at least 3.3 million doses of the flu vaccine have been shipped to Michigan, far short of what is needed to boost the vaccination rate even to the national average, though more can be shipped, Swanson said.

At least 1.7 million were administered by Dec. 20 - about 260,000 more than by the same time in 2012, Swanson said.

"Here's my fear: We wait too long," he said, noting that the vaccine takes 10 days to two weeks to be effective.

Vaccination rates usually peak in October, and health providers - struggling to keep up with packed waiting rooms and routine appointments - are less likely to continue to encourage vaccines later in the season, he said.

One of the seven children who died had been vaccinated, and two were too young to be vaccinated, according to a state report.

Health officials would not release details about the infant who died, including an age or in what county the child lived, although they did say the child was not vaccinated nor had underlying health conditions.

Also in central Michigan, at least one school reported several cases of influenza-like symptoms - high fevers, respiratory problems and coughing - though a lab did not confirm the virus, Peters said.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on January 02, 2014, 07:53:27 pm
http://beforeitsnews.com/health/2013/12/health-alert-12-states-hit-with-deadly-swine-flu-has-it-mutated-video-2517384.html

Health Alert! 12 States Hit With Deadly Swine Flu In Just Two Weeks (Video)
Tuesday, December 31, 2013 16:28

By Susan Duclos

[Update 1/1/14] 621 cases in Canada in a one week period.

Accoding to a report in Hispanic Business the flu season has taken off but the “main strain” named is the deadly H1N1 Swine flu, which has claimed multiple lives, and four of them were children who died from flu complications.

The H1N1 flu was responsible for the pandemic of 2009- 2010 which final totals in deaths were in the hundreds of thousands and now cases are being found in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Wyoming and Alaska and according to the latest reports, now California, where half the patients are already in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

[Update] Add Tennessee to the list, bringing the total states to 12.

According to WBIR, from a report before the news of California and Tennessee’s cases, all this when just two weeks ago, no states had reported H1N1.

In the second video below, Mary Greeley goes over previous reports on testing which first came up negative, then positive, and wonders if the H1N1 virus hasn’t mutated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvruXTR9oBM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDKBav_c8F8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_OP6ykAaHA


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Mark on January 04, 2014, 05:40:47 am
5h

Authorities report 1st human case of H7N9 virus in Shanghai in 86-year-old - @XHNews


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Mark on January 09, 2014, 04:41:27 pm
First North American death from bird flu

 North America's first fatal case of bird flu has been announced but Canada's health minister says risk of the disease spreading is very low


The first fatal case of bird flu in North America has been reported in Canada.

Officials in Canada said the victim, who was from Alberta, had just returned from Beijing.
 
The unnamed victim, who was not identified, died on January 3, having been admitted to hospital on Jan 1.
 
Four days earlier the victim, whose sex was not disclosed, had complained of a headache and fever.
 
Rona Ambrose, the Canadian health minister, insisted this was an isolated case, although officials are trying to contact others on the flight.

"The risk of H5N1 to Canadians is very low," she said. "There is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission."
 
Two people who travelled with the victim are being kept under observation for 10 days – double the time the disease takes to manifest itself as a precaution.
 
Officials said the H5N1 virus was identified by the federal microbiology laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
 
The virus is contracted directly from birds, mainly poultry. In 60 per cent of human cases the disease is fatal.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/10560108/First-North-American-death-from-bird-flu.html


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on January 12, 2014, 09:21:29 am
Read in my Dallas Morning News yesterday over "Flu death toll hits 26 in Dallas County"("Unusually virulent strain has sent 557 to hospitals, put dozens in intensive care"). And they mentioned H1N1.

Again, more fear, Fear, and FEAR! They're using the MSM to do just that - get everyone to take the VACCINE SHOTS! Saw my local news last night, and couldn't believe the people admitting to giving in to this(propaganda). And I thought I saw one guy with the word "Chaplain" on the back of his coat(ie-perhaps they're getting 501c3 ministers to help them roll this out now? Caesar slowly calling in his chips, perhaps?).

20 years ago when I was in college, there were almost always numerous people in my classes that would be absent for a week or 2 during the month of Feb b/c of the flu, but en yet you never heard the MSM et al push for vaccinations like they do now. Just saying.

1Peter_5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Mark on January 13, 2014, 07:37:03 am
Alberta woman who died of H5N1 was in her 20s

Dr. Michael Gardam, an infectious disease consultant with Toronto's University Health Network who's not with the WHO, says it's "odd" for humans to get infected with H5N1 from a non-poultry source. "Almost all of the cases that we've heard about going back to the 1990s, there's been direct contact with poultry,"

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/alberta-woman-who-died-of-h5n1-was-in-her-20s-1.2490018


H7N9 has mutated and may spread from human to human: expert

Chinese researchers have discovered mutations in the new strain of avian influenza A, known as H7N9, and have found that the virus has the ability to spread from human to human, the latest issue of the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Weekly reported.   

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20140112000072&cid=1103&MainCatID=0


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on January 15, 2014, 11:02:15 am
1The 4:13  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
1Th 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.



Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on January 21, 2014, 09:13:01 pm
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/could-cold-meds-help-spread-flu-2D11967299?ocid=msnhp&pos=3
Could cold meds help spread the flu?
1/21/14

Cold and flu drugs that bring down fevers and help patients feel better could be helping the spread of influenza, researchers reported on Tuesday.

People who take the fever-lowering drugs will feel better and may get out and about sooner than they would otherwise – and while they’re still infectious, the team at Canada’s McMaster University calculated.

It’s a controversial study, done using mathematical calculations and not by measuring the actual spread of disease. But it attempts to answer some of the questions that doctors have about the benefits of treating flu-like symptoms.

Their study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that 1,000 more people may die from influenza in a typical year because of people taking over-the-counter cold and flu drugs containing ibuprofen, acetaminophen or other drugs and then going to work, school or shopping.

“We aren’t saying don’t take medication. That’s not the message,” David Earn, who specializes in mathematics and disease, said in a telephone interview. “Be aware that if you take this medication, there is this effective increase in transmission.”

So even if you feel better after taking a cold pill or a dose of syrup, it’s still best to stay home for a few days, infectious disease experts say. “The take-home message for the public is, if you are sick, stay home,” Dr. Arnold Monto of the University of Michigan advises.

Earn and colleagues took a batch of complicated factors and plugged them into a computer: How many people get a fever when they have flu, how many take cold medications, how much more likely someone is to transmit flu if their fever has been lowered, and how many flu cases there are overall.

“Because fever can actually help lower the amount of virus in a sick person's body and reduce the chance of transmitting disease to others, taking drugs that reduce fever can increase transmission. We’ve discovered that this increase has significant effects when we scale up to the level of the whole population,” Earn said.

“It’s a substantial effect.” They calculate the widespread use of fever reducing drugs increases the number of flu cases by 5 percent in an average year in North America.

The study is highly theoretical, says Monto, who studies how flu spreads and who wasn’t involved in this research.

Cold and flu medications often contain fever reducers, which can also help the achy feeling that makes influenza so miserable. These drugs include aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen and acetaminophen, sold under brand names such as Motrin, Aleve and Tylenol.

They can really help patients feel better. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends treating fever.

“Bringing down a fever will make the person feel better and help patients rest,” the CDC advises on its website.

But fever is the body’s response to infection and many experts believe that it can kill viruses and bacteria, or at least reduce their ability to replicate in the body. Some studies done in animals suggest that lowering a fever can actually make a flu infection last longer, although this has not been shown in people.

“People often take — or give their kids — fever-reducing drugs so they can go to work or school,” Earn said. “They may think the risk of infecting others is lower because the fever is lower. In fact, the opposite may be true: the ill people may give off more virus because fever has been reduced.”

And just because you, or a child, has a mild case of flu doesn’t mean the person you infect will get a mild case, too. Influenza kills anywhere between 3,000 and 49,000 people a year.

“Maybe you’ll give your young child medication to make them feel better and because they feel better they might go jump in Granny’s lap and give her a hug and a kiss,” Earn said. But that flu that just makes the child feel low could make someone over 65 seriously ill.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Kilika on January 22, 2014, 03:43:58 am
Eugenicists playing word games.

Fever is not good. It is indeed the body reacting to illness. It has it's purpose but the body can't handle a fever for long before it starts causing problems, especially if it gets too high for too long.

But to say flu might be spread more from less fevers? That makes no medical sense. A fever is not what is infectious. It's the flu bug itself.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Mark on January 22, 2014, 05:57:27 am
China reports two deaths from H7N9 avian flu

Chinese health authorities reported the deaths of two men, including a doctor, from H7N9 avian flu in Shanghai. The Shanghai municipal health commission Monday reported the 31-year-old doctor and a 77-year-old farmer died this past weekend.   

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2014/01/20/China-reports-two-deaths-from-H7N9-avian-flu/UPI-42591390275939/?spt=sh&or=3


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Mark on January 28, 2014, 06:21:04 am
H7N9 bird flu virus: Hong Kong culls 20,000 chickens


Hong Kong has begun culling 20,000 chickens after the H7N9 bird flu virus was found in poultry imported from mainland China. All chickens at the wholesale market where the positive test took place were to be destroyed, the government said. The government has also banned the import of live chickens from the mainland for three weeks.   

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25923508


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on January 28, 2014, 10:25:16 am
Rev 6:5  And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
Rev 6:6  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Mark on February 05, 2014, 08:36:26 am
Scientists warn of bird flu virus found in humans for first time

One woman died and another person has been diagnosed with an infection from a bird flu virus that has never been seen in humans before, according to a study released on Wednesday in British medical journal The Lancet. Chinese scientists cautioned in the journal about the pandemic potential of the new avian influenza H10N8 virus, citing the continued spread of other bird flu strains.   

http://www.lse.co.uk/AllNews.asp?code=p1x6gdig&headline=Scientists_warn_of_bird_flu_virus_found_in_humans_for_first_time


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on February 14, 2014, 01:10:43 pm
http://www.infowars.com/is-fema-preparing-for-a-pandemic/
1/21/14
FEMA Accelerates Preparations For Pandemic

Federal agency seeks 40-yard dumpsters for bio-medical waste disposal during emergency


Paul Joseph Watson
 Infowars.com
 January 21, 2014

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is looking for contractors to supply 40-yard size dumpsters along with experts who can dispose of contaminated bio-medical waste during a national emergency.

The Request for Information (RFI) appears on the FedBizOpps website and asks for, “feedback from waste removal industry vendors that can potentially provide either dumpster service and/or bio-medical waste collection and removal services during emergency response events within the Continental United States (CONUS) area of responsibility.”

FEMA is intending to have one or more contractors provide them with the service as part of an indefinite contract that will initially have a base length of one year with four additional 12 month options.

The RFI states that contractors “must pick up regulated (infectious) waste daily” and an attached question page asks contractors if they can supply dumpsters of different sizes and how quickly they can be supplied.

FEMA will undoubtedly claim that this is merely part of routine preparations for national health emergencies which may or may not happen, although that hasn’t stopped some from expressing concerns that the federal agency is gearing up for a major pandemic such as the H7N9 bird flu virus to hit the United States.

One website linked the dumpster order to a previous FEMA solicitation seeking 100,000 “Doctor Scrubs” pants and shirts to be delivered within 48 hours to 1,000 tent hospitals nationwide. Contractors responded to the unusual request by stating that they were unable to fulfil such an “armageddon scenario.”

China is currently experiencing a surge in the H7N9 virus which has left dozens of people in critical condition, with several deaths.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014
Post by: Mark on April 11, 2014, 11:28:47 am
Health officials concerned that deadly bird flu could soon pass easily between humans

All it would take is five gene mutations of the H5N1 avian influenza virus to potentially create havoc on a global scale. Dutch researchers are reporting that if those mutations happen, the virus would become transmissible via coughing or sneezing, just like regular flu viruses. Currently, most cases of H5N1 arise after a person has had contact with sick or dead infected poultry.

To give an idea of how deadly the avian flu virus is, scientists at one point stopped conducting research on H5N1 over concerns that in the wrong hands it could be used as a biological weapon by terrorists. Of the 650 people infected since H5N1 was first identified in Hong Kong 17 years ago, 60 percent died because of the disease.

Health officials have feared that H5N1 would evolve, but they are not sure if the virus is likely to mutate outside of a laboratory. "The biggest unknown is whether the viruses are likely to gain the critical mutations naturally," says Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. "If they can appear readily, then it is very worrisome. If not, then there's still a major hurdle that these viruses have to get over to become human-transmissible."

During the study, which was published Thursday in the journal Cell, researchers used ferrets as stand-ins for humans. They sprayed an altered version of the H5N1 virus into a ferret's nose, then put it in a special cage with a ferret who had not been exposed. The cage was constructed to allow shared airflow without direct contact, and when the healthy ferret exhibited signs of the flu (loss of appetite and energy, ruffled fur) they knew the virus had spread through the air.

http://theweek.com/article/index/259830/speedreads-health-officials-concerned-that-deadly-bird-flu-could-soon-pass-easily-between-humans


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on March 12, 2015, 05:38:48 am
Mutating H7N9 bird flu may pose pandemic threat, scientists warn

A wave of H7N9 bird flu in China that has spread into people may have the potential to emerge as a pandemic strain in humans, scientists said on Wednesday.

The H7N9 virus, one of several strains of bird flu known to be able to infect humans, has persisted, diversified and spread in chickens across China, the researchers said, fuelling a resurgence of infections in people and posing a wider threat.

"The expansion of genetic diversity and geographical spread indicates that, unless effective control measures are in place, H7N9 could be expected to persist and spread beyond the region," they said in a study published in the journal Nature.

The H7N9 bird flu virus emerged in humans in March 2013 and has since then infected at least 571 people in China, Taipei, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Canada, killing 212 of them, according to February data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

After an initial flare up of human cases at the start of 2013, the H7N9 appeared to die down -- aided in large part by Chinese authorities deciding to close live poultry markets and issue health warnings about direct contact with chickens.

But infections in people increased again last year and in early 2015, prompting researchers to try to understand more about how the virus re-emerged, how it might develop, and how it might threaten public health.

In this study, an international team of scientists led by Yi Guan of Hong Kong university monitored the evolution and spread of H7N9 over 15 cities across five provinces in China.

By collecting and sequencing a large number of samples, they found that the H7N9 virus is mutating frequently, acquiring genetic changes that might increase its pandemic potential.

A large number of new genetic variants of the virus have become established in chickens and have spread across the country, probably because of poultry trade movement, they said.

Flu experts not directly involved in the research said its findings were interesting but did not necessarily show the H7N9 was changing in ways that made it more likely to develop into a pandemic flu strain.

"What we don't know from this paper is the significance of all these mutations that are accumulating as the virus persists and spreads," said Wendy Barclay, an expert in flu virology at Britain's Imperial College London. "This is especially relevant for human health -- does any of this change the pandemic potential of the virus?"

In its latest update on the flu strain, the Geneva-based WHO said it "continues to closely monitor the H7N9 situation" and conduct risk assessments.

"So far, the overall risk associated with the H7N9 virus has not changed," it said.

Yi Guan's team, however, said their analysis pointed to a need for heightened vigilance of H7N9 and for curbing direct human contact with live poultry at markets.

"Permanent closure of live poultry markets, central slaughtering and preventing inter-regional poultry transportation during disease outbreaks are needed to reduce the threat of H7N9 to public health," they wrote.

http://news.yahoo.com/mutating-h7n9-bird-flu-may-pose-pandemic-threat-183117237.html


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on March 29, 2015, 05:29:40 am
Minnesota finds third bird flu infection in commercial poultry

 The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Saturday confirmed the third infection of a virulent strain of avian flu in a commercial poultry flock in Minnesota, the nation's top turkey-producing state.

A case of H5N2 flu was found in a flock of 39,000 turkeys in Stearns County, which is northwest of Minneapolis, according to a notice from USDA. State officials quarantined the infected farm, and birds there will be culled to prevent the spread of the disease.

Recent infections of avian flu in states stretching from Arkansas to Oregon have prompted overseas buyers to limit imports of U.S. poultry from companies such as Tyson Foods Inc, Pilgrim's Pride Corp and Sanderson Farms Inc.

The USDA is developing a vaccine to protect poultry from new strains of avian flu, including H5N2, but has no plans to distribute it yet.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/minnesota-suffers-third-bird-flu-infection-commercial-poultry-170017720.html


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on March 29, 2015, 11:19:35 am
Second western Minnesota turkey farm hit by bird flu outbreak

A second Minnesota turkey farm has been struck by a form of bird flu that's deadly to poultry and will lose 66,000 birds, state and federal officials said Friday.   

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_27799548/second-western-minnesota-turkey-farm-hit-by-bird


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on April 10, 2015, 06:34:20 pm
http://news.yahoo.com/bird-flu-confirmed-4-more-minnesota-turkey-farms-171410106.html
Bird flu confirmed at 4 more Minnesota turkey farms
4/10/15

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A deadly bird flu strain was confirmed Friday at four more turkey farms in Minnesota, raising the number of farms affected in the country's top turkey-producing state to 13 and the toll at farms across the Midwest to over 1 million birds since the outbreak was first confirmed in early March.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the new cases of the highly contagious H5N2 strain are in Cottonwood, Lyon, Watonwan and Stearns counties. The four new farms housed a combined 189,000 turkeys. Officials said those not killed by the virus will be euthanized to prevent the disease from spreading.

Once those birds have been destroyed, the 13 affected Minnesota farms will have lost 872,000 turkeys. Since the outbreak began, 19 farms in Minnesota, South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas have lost more than 1 million turkeys. Canadian officials confirmed Wednesday that a turkey farm in southern Ontario with 44,800 birds was hit, too. The USDA has sent over 40 experts to Minnesota to assist in the response.

Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Dave Frederickson said his state has about 450 farms that raise around 46 million turkeys annually. The losses so far work out to about 1.9 percent of the state's yearly production.

"For these companies, and obviously for the farmers and their families that have been impacted by the H5N2 virus, there are some really difficult times ahead," he said.

Officials stress the risk to public health is low and that there's no danger to the food supply. No human cases have been detected in the U.S., said Dr. Joni Scheftel, state public health veterinarian with the Minnesota Department of Health.

The largest farm hit was a 310,000-bird farm in Meeker County owned by Jennie-O Turkey Store, the country's No. 2 turkey processor, where the virus was confirmed Wednesday. Three of the new cases were also connected with Jennie-O, a division of Hormel Foods Corp. The company said the Watonwan County farm is company-owned, while the Cottonwood and Lyon County operations were contract growers. Altogether, seven Jennie-O owned and contact farms have lost 626,000 turkeys because of the outbreak. But the company says its losses are a small percentage of its overall production.

Scientists suspect migratory waterfowl such as ducks are the reservoir of the virus. They can spread it through their droppings. But Michelle Carstensen, wildlife health program supervisor with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said tests still haven't found any wild birds with the disease or any H5N2 in their droppings in Minnesota so far. Test results are expected next week on samples collected near affected farms in three counties, she said.

Officials are trying to determine how the virus has managed to evade the strict biosecurity that's standard practice at commercial turkey farms. The virus can be carried into barns by workers or by rodents and wild birds that sneak inside.

But Dr. Beth Thompson, assistant director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, said investigators haven't determined how the virus entered any of the infected barns. She said the industry's biosecurity practices are "top notch." And Fredrickson disputed the suggestion that those measures aren't working.

Thompson said they hope the threat recedes as the weather warms and the spring migration ends. Flu viruses prefer cold, wet conditions, she said, so they're hopeful that hot, dry days will kill it off. She said that would prevent it from being tracked into barns, if that's what's happening.

Carstensen said they still don't know if this virus will be a long-term problem. It was first detected in North America in December on the West Coast, and scientists don't know much yet about how it behaves, she said.


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on April 17, 2015, 05:39:01 am
Latest bird flu outbreak brings total Minnesota turkeys affected to 1.4 million

Highly lethal bird flu is taking on epidemic proportions, hitting eight more Minnesota turkey farms and bringing the number of birds affected in the state to more than 1.4 million.

The newly afflicted farms were raising more than 500,000 turkeys, making Tuesday’s announcement by regulators the largest one-day death toll since highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu struck the state in early March. Birds on a farm that don’t die from the sickness are killed as a ­precaution.

Minnesota, the nation’s largest turkey producer at 46 million birds annually, is the epicenter of a nationwide outbreak of the deadly bird flu, which has hit at least 12 states. The first case in Iowa was announced Tuesday, South Dakota has had three outbreaks, and North Dakota and Wisconsin one each.

“It’s clearly a major epidemic,” said Michael Osterholm, a prominent infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota. A highly pathogenic bird flu outbreak this large is “unprecedented” in the United States, he said.

And it’s likely not going away soon. “We do expect to see additional [flocks] affected through this spring,” said Bill Hartmann, chief veterinarian for the Minnesota Animal Health Board.

Still, animal health experts hope that the warmer spring weather will stop the virus, which likes cold and damp weather.

The bird flu is believed to be spread by waterfowl that carry the virus but don’t get sick from it. Domestic turkeys are highly susceptible to the flu, and chickens have caught it, too.

However, the H5N2 virus has yet to cause human illness in the United States, health experts say. “This is not a public health risk or food safety risk,” said Ed Ehlinger, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health.

Still, people in other countries who work closely with infected birds have caught strains of highly pathogenic avian flu.

The state Health Department has been monitoring 60 people who’ve worked on infected farms, and none of them has come down with the flu, Ehlinger said.

The bird flu has rocked the state’s turkey industry, which includes about 450 growers who tend about 600 farms. “Highly pathogenic avian influenza is a game changer,” said Steve Olson, executive director of the Minnesota ­Turkey Growers Association.

Likening the flu’s spread to tornado season, Olson said that “for turkey farmers, it’s like a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week tornado warning that lasts for two months.” And even if warm weather stops the bug, it’s not over for the turkey industry.

With the flu ingrained in turkey country, farmers will have to be on guard against the virus for the next three to five years, Olson said.

For farms hit by the flu, the financial and emotional toll is “devastating,” Olson said. The birds killed in the first 14 outbreaks cost farmers nearly $16 million, the growers association said. That doesn’t account for other lost revenue: Barns hit by the flu can be out of commission for months.

Austin-based Hormel Foods, owner of the well known Jennie-O brand, relies on Minnesota and Wisconsin for its turkey supply.

Seven of the eight afflicted Minnesota farms announced Tuesday are suppliers to Hormel, the nation’s second largest turkey processor. In total, 14 of the 22 Minnesota farms hit so far by the highly lethal flu are Hormel suppliers.

The biggest outbreak announced Tuesday hit two Hormel-affiliated farms in Swift County with a total of 314,000 birds. Other outbreaks reported Tuesday:

• A 76,000 turkey flock in Stearns County, the fifth bird flu incident in that county.

• A 56,000 turkey flock in Redwood County.

• Two farms in Meeker County totaling 45,000 birds, the second and third incidents in that county.

• A 30,000 turkey flock in Kandiyohi County, the fourth incident there.

• A 21,500 turkey flock in Le Sueur County.

State law forbids naming the exact location or name of a turkey farm hit by the disease, animal health regulators say.

Hartmann said there are now 130 people in Minnesota working on solving the bird flu, including researchers and other personnel from the ­animal health board, the state Agriculture Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They’ve yet to figure out exactly how the bug is getting into enclosed turkey barns with biosecurity precautions against disease.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is in the midst of taking 3,000 wild waterfowl feces samples throughout the state, trying to find the virus in nature. With about 350 samples so far, they haven’t had a positive test yet.

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/299732091.html


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on April 21, 2015, 10:10:32 am
Bird flu takes biggest toll yet as virus hits chicken farms



MINNEAPOLIS (April 21, 2015)- Poultry producers and scientists have been hoping warmer weather would knock down a virulent strain of bird flu that has hammered the Midwest, but the virus recently took its biggest toll yet, hitting a farm in Iowa that held nearly 10 percent of the state's egg-laying chickens. Here are some questions and answers about the outbreak:

WHAT'S THE LATEST?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that the deadly H5N2 bird flu virus was found at a farm in northwest Iowa's Osceola County. The confirmation means up to 5.3 million hens there must be destroyed in a state that produces one in every five eggs consumed in the country. Seven other Midwestern states have been hit by the virus, dooming nearly 7.8 million turkeys and chickens since March.

WHAT'S THE OUTLOOK?

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials say the virus could be a problem for several years. The USDA's chief veterinary officer, Dr. John Clifford, also said last week that while new cases should drop to close to zero once the weather warms up and kills off the virus, there's "very likely" to be a resurgence this fall when the wild waterfowl that are natural carriers of avian influenza fly south for the winter.

WHAT KIND OF FLU IS THIS, EXACTLY?

H5N2 is a highly contagious virus that kills commercial poultry quickly once it gets into a barn. But the risk to the public is considered low, and infected birds are kept out of the food supply.

WHERE IS THIS TURNING UP, AND IN WHAT KINDS OF BIRDS?

Only two egg operations have been hit — the one in Iowa and one in Wisconsin. Except for a couple backyard flocks, all the other cases in the Midwest have been at commercial turkey farms. Minnesota has had 28 turkey farms hit, far more than any other state. Officials say that's because Minnesota is the top turkey producing state, and its thousands of lakes and ponds are attractive to migrating ducks and other waterfowl. H5N2 and other highly pathogenic strains have also been found since late last year among wild birds, backyard flocks and commercial farms in some western states and British Columbia.

AREN'T MOST COMMERCIAL POULTRY BARNS SHUT TIGHT TO KEEP DISEASES OUT?

They are. Poultry farms with good biosecurity strictly limit who's allowed in. Workers often have to shower on their way in and out, wear protective coveralls and step in disinfectant to kill viruses on their boots. Equipment coming in and out is typically sanitized. But the system doesn't always work. Experts say it requires everyone to do everything right all the time. Plus rodents and wild birds that sneak into a barn can bring in the virus.

SO WHAT HAPPENS TO THESE TURKEYS WHEN BIRD FLU ARRIVES?

They die, and quickly. Less severe symptoms can be similar to colds and flu in humans, or a flock turning quiet. Vaccines have been used around the world to protect flocks against various bird flu strains ahead of time, but this strain is new to North America. Once an infection is confirmed at a farm, all surviving birds on the property are typically killed to prevent it from spreading. These flocks are usually killed by pumping a water-based foam into the barn, following guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The foam suffocates the birds within minutes.

OH. SO WHAT DO THEY DO WITH ALL THESE DEAD BIRDS?

They compost them — usually right in the same barn where they died. Composting is a widely used and approved method throughout the industry to dispose of dead birds. Studies show that properly done, the heat generated by composting is enough to kill flu viruses and other pathogens commonly present in poultry such as salmonella. The compost then can be safely spread as fertilizer.

DO THESE OUTBREAKS WIPE OUT AFFECTED FARMERS?

An outbreak that kills tens of thousands of birds certainly can cost a farm dearly. The government doesn't compensate producers for birds that die of the disease itself, but it does reimburse them for birds that have to be euthanized as a precaution. That gives farmers an incentive to report suspected outbreaks and deal with them swiftly.

SO DOES THIS MEAN I'LL BE PAYING MORE FOR TURKEY, EGGS AND CHICKEN?

Probably not in the near term. The toll nationwide represents just a small part of U.S. production. Hormel Foods Corp., which owns Jennie-O, said Monday that it will sell less turkey this year because of the outbreaks but that it can't comment now on how retail prices or the holiday season will be affected. But don't worry about Thanksgiving yet. Turkey prices around the holidays often have nothing to do with the costs of production. Retailers often sell turkeys at a loss just to draw in customers who'll stock up on stuffing mix, cranberries, sweet potatoes, pies and other traditional favorites.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/ap/united-states/bird-flu-takes-biggest-toll-yet-as-virus-hits-chicken-farms#.VTZnb5OK_CY


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on April 26, 2015, 05:53:32 am
INSIGHT-New avian flu viruses send U.S. scientists scrambling

 Three highly pathogenic avian flu viruses that have infected poultry and wild birds in the U.S. Midwest appear unlikely to present a significant risk to humans. But the presence of the viruses in North America has scientists scrambling to understand their potential long-term threat.

One of the viruses, H5N2, has already led to the slaughter of millions of turkeys and chickens, as commercial farms try to control the spread of the virus.

No humans have yet become infected, but scientists say it is possible that someone in direct contact with sick birds might catch the virus, though it is extremely unlikely that an infected human could pass the disease on to another human.

"Most of the time, these viruses don't have human disease potential, but obviously you need to be very careful," said Dr. Stephen Morse, an expert in emerging infections at Columbia University. "Nowadays, you can't say anything about flu with certainty."

Avian flu, which infects poultry, is caused by an influenza A type virus and is often spread by free-flying waterfowl, such as ducks, geese and shorebirds.

The viruses are classified by two types of proteins. Hemagglutinin or "H" proteins, of which there are 16, and neuraminidase or "N" proteins, of which there are 9. Avian flu viruses are also classified as low pathogenicity or high pathogenicity based on their ability to infect and kill poultry.

The highly pathogenic avian flu viruses currently killing U.S. poultry first originated as a single H5N8 virus in Asia, and quickly spread among wild birds along migratory pathways in the Pacific flyway.

Once the virus reached North America, it mutated, mixing with North American avian influenza strains to create the new viruses now being seen. The H parts, which are highly pathogenic in poultry, originated in Asia, and the N parts come from North American, low pathogenic, avian flu viruses, said Dr. Rubin Donis, an associate director for policy and preparedness in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's influenza division.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is still seeing the original H5N8 virus, but it has also identified two strains of mixed-origin viruses, both of them highly pathogenic. One is the deadly H5N2 virus. The other is an entirely new H5N1 virus that has so far been found in only a handful of the recent cases.

Because much is still unknown about these new viruses, the USDA and the CDC are conducting detailed analyses that include sequencing the viruses' genomes. A key question they hope to answer is whether the viruses might mutate and become human viruses.

"This is something we need to avoid: it is something that could happen and which we have to look for," said Dr. Jurgen Richt, an expert in avian influenza at Kansas State University.

Richt said scientists also need to find out whether the viruses are mutating when they come from a wild host into domesticated poultry.

Although infections with H5N1 viruses have been rare, past strains have sometimes caused severe disease and death in people who became infected through close contact with infected birds or prolonged contact with infected people. Since flu viruses evolve and often swap genes, the concern is that they could gain the ability to transmit easily among people, which could trigger a global pandemic.

Donis said the CDC is currently conducting studies in ferrets, which are used as surrogate models for humans, to see how the viruses behave in mammals and whether they can spread easily to animals in nearby cages.

One good sign already is that the H5N2 virus does not appear to be able to replicate readily at lower temperatures, which is required for transmission from person to person.

Donis said human transmission of flu viruses occurs in the upper respiratory tract, where body temperatures are lower.

"You will not have a pandemic without a virus that replicates well in the upper respiratory tract and is easily transmitted by droplets," Donis said.

The CDC has already studied a lab-developed version of the avian hemagglutinin, the "H" portion of the viruses, to see if it contains receptors that could easily attach to human cells. In these experiments, the "H" has bound strictly to avian receptors, and not human receptors, another good sign that the virus may not be easily transmissible in people.

"So far, what we see is a typical avian virus that is not expected to be transmissible in ferrets," Donis said. Results of the ferret studies should be available in a few weeks.

A SPREADING THREAT

The mere fact that an H5N1 avian influenza virus has arrived in North America, however, represents a significant evolution.

Before 1996, none of the highly pathogenic viruses survived very long in nature. H5N1 viruses had largely been confined to Southeast Asia.

"They always burned out and they were never transmitted long distances repeatedly by wild birds," Donis said.

Things began to change in 2004/2005 when an H5N1 virus began infecting birds in Qinghai Lake, China, and then spread to parts of Europe and Africa.

Scientists in North America began collecting millions of samples looking for the virus in North American birds.

"There wasn't a single H5N1," Donis said, until this past January, when a new, mixed origin H5N1 virus was isolated in a wild duck in the United States.

The question now is what has changed that makes this virus more capable of spreading in both Eastern and Western directions.

The concern is if the virus becomes established in the breeding grounds in Alaska and Northern Canada, there is a potential for these viruses to become an annual burden each time the birds migrate south.

http://www.trust.org/item/20150425225618-z9u8k?view=print


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on April 28, 2015, 06:46:13 am
New bird flu cases add 6 million birds in Iowa

Avian flu outbreaks were reported at five more Iowa facilities Monday, with more than 6 million birds infected. All told, the number of infected laying hens and turkeys in Iowa has now jumped to 10 million at eight locations.   

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2015/04/27/iowas-bird-flu-cases-push-state-says/26464645/


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on May 01, 2015, 04:49:34 pm
Local Bird Flu Found In Hawk In Western Minnesota

A hawk in western Minnesota is the first wild bird in the state to test positive for the bird flu virus since the beginning of an outbreak that’s killed more than 15 million birds in the Midwest this spring, state wildlife officials announced Thursday. Officials have long said that wild birds could be spreading the flu, but warned that the positive test in the hawk doesn’t prove wild birds are the direct cause of the recent infections.   

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/04/30/bird-flu-found-in-hawk-in-western-minnesota/


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on May 02, 2015, 01:30:31 pm
Gov. Branstad Declares State of Emergency As Bird Flu Spreads

On Friday, the Iowa Department of Agriculture announced four additional counties have suspected cases of avian influenza, also known as bird flu. The outbreak now spans ten counties and has prompted Governor Branstad to declare a state of emergency in Iowa.

“While the avian influenza outbreak does not pose a risk to humans, we are taking the matter very seriously and believe declaring a state of emergency is the best way to make all resources available,” said Branstad. “Even before the virus began in Iowa, our office was monitoring the outbreak in other states. We’ll continue our work – as we’ve been doing since the first outbreak in Buena Vista County – in hopes of stopping the virus’ aggressive spread throughout Iowa.”

21 sites spanning 10 Iowa counties have cases that are either presumed positives or confirmed positives. The counties include: Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Kossuth, Madison, O’Brien, Osceola, Pocahontas, Sac and Sioux.

“Iowa’s poultry farms are an important part of our state’s agriculture industry.  This disease is having a far reaching impact and, unfortunately, it has continued to spread.  We have seen tremendous support and coordination from state, federal and local partners and this emergency declaration will allow the state to continue to respond aggressively to this disease outbreak,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey.

The proclamation of disaster emergency can be read below and does the following:

    Activates the disaster response and recovery aspect of the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department’s (HSEMD) Iowa Emergency Response Plan.
    Authorizes the use and deployment of all available state resources, supplies, equipment, and materialsasare deemed reasonably necessary by the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS)andIowaHSEMDin order to do the following:
        Track and monitor instances of confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza throughout the state of Iowa and the country
        Establish importation restrictions and prohibitions in respect to animals suspected of suffering from this disease
        Rapidly detect any presumptive or confirmed cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza within Iowa’s borders
        Contain the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza within our state through depopulation, disinfections, and disposal of livestock carcasses
        Engage in detection activities, contact tracking, and other investigatory work to stop the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza within our state, and eliminate the disease in those disaster counties where it has been found and lessen the risk of this disease spreading to our state as a whole
    Temporarily authorizes the Iowa HSEMD, the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT), the Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS), the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), other state agencies, and local law enforcement agencies and private contractors employed by the same to remove and/or dispose of live animals and animal carcasses on publicly or privately owned land when those live animals and/or carcasses threaten public health or safety.
    Authorizes the Iowa HSEMD, the Iowa DOT, the Iowa DPS, the Iowa DNR, IDPH, other state agencies, and local law enforcement agencies to implement stop movement and stop loading restrictions and other control zone measures as are reasonably deemed necessary, including establishing buffer zones, checkpoints, and cleaning and disinfecting operations at checkpoints and borders surrounding any quarantine areas established by the IDALS or at any other location in the state of Iowa, in order to stop the spread of this contagious disease.
    Authorizes state agencies to assist the IDALS in disinfection, depopulation, and livestock carcass disposal efforts.
    Temporarily waives restrictions to allow for the timely and efficient disposal of poultry carcasses.
    Temporarily suspends the regulatory provisions pertaining to hours of service for commercial vehicle drivers hauling poultry carcasses infected with or exposed to highly pathogenic avian influenza or while hauling loads otherwise related to the response to this disaster during its duration, subject to certain conditions outlined in the disaster proclamation.


http://whotv.com/2015/05/01/suspected-bird-flu-cases-found-in-four-additional-counties/


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on May 03, 2015, 10:17:41 am
Bird flu ravaging commercial flocks remains mysterious

It's been five months since the H5N2 bird flu virus was discovered in the United States, and producers have lost 21 million birds in the Midwest alone. Yet, researchers acknowledge they know little about a bird flu virus that's endangered turkey and egg-laying chicken populations that supply much of the nation.

Scientists at the Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies are puzzled by the H5N2 virus' spread — even amid heightened biosecurity measures — and apparent lack of widespread deaths in largely unprotected backyard flocks.

“At this point, we don't know very much about these viruses because they've only recently been identified,” Dr. Alicia Fry, the CDC's leader of the influenza prevention and control team, said. “We're following the situation very closely because this is something we're continuing to understand.”

The H5N2 virus surfaced last winter in Canada and was first identified in the United States in early December, when it was found in a wild bird on the West Coast. This spring, the virus was found in poultry operations in eight Midwest states, forcing commercial producers to kill and compost millions of turkeys and chickens in Iowa, Minnesota and elsewhere.

Scientists speculate that perhaps rodents or small birds, seeking food, tracked the virus into barns. Maybe it's the work of flies, as the bird flu virus has been found on the insects in a Pennsylvania outbreak in 1983 and in Japan in 2004. The USDA's chief veterinarian even floated the idea wind may be blowing dust and feathers carrying the virus from the barnyard into buildings through air vents.

“To me, the main concern is the disease is moving even with heightened biosecurity,” said Richard French, a professor of animal health at Becker College in Worcester, Mass. “Ideally we've got to try and figure out the way it's most likely moving and try to put controls in place to stop that.”

Poultry farms' biosecurity measures include changing clothes and boots before entering barns, disinfecting equipment and vehicles before they approach barns and assigning workers to specific barns.

As new operations are infected almost daily, USDA epidemiologists are trying to determine whether the virus came from a wild bird or whether it could have spread from poultry in another barn or a nearby farm.

“We are continuing to evaluate how facilities become positive because we also want to be cognizant of any potential risk of lateral spread from farm to farm,” said Dr. T.J. Myers, the USDA associate deputy administrator of veterinary services. “We are doing those evaluations as we speak, and we really don't have enough data to report on that yet.”

Another puzzling question has been why there hasn't been a surge in infections of backyard flocks. The USDA has identified 12 cases, including five in Washington in January and February, plus others in Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon and Wisconsin.

Cases might not be reported, French said, noting that commercial operations have a financial incentive to immediately report illnesses because the government pays them for each live bird that must be destroyed. Plus, French said, outdoor chickens could have been exposed over time to low pathogenic versions of bird flu and have developed stronger immunity.

One belief held by researchers will soon be tested: whether the virus will die as temperatures warm up and ultraviolet light increases. With temperatures this week in the 70s in many of the affected states and even warmer weather expected soon, infections should decline if that assumption is true.

But David Swayne, director of the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Ga., acknowledged it's hard to predict what will happen.

“It's pretty complex. It involves the climate, the temperature itself, the amount of humidity there,” he said.

Scientists expect the virus to return in the fall along with cooler temperatures and wild birds migrating south, but Swayne said the virus could burn itself out and disappear for a while before that.

Amid the questions is one about the human element: Could the virus spread to people? So far, it hasn't, but significant efforts are under way to develop a vaccine just in case.

“We're cautiously optimistic that we will not see any human cases, but there certainly is a possibility that we may,” Fry said.

Read more: http://triblive.com/business/headlines/8292696-74/virus-bird-flu#ixzz3Z5aDMhUJ


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on May 07, 2015, 05:20:51 am
Bird Flu Has Already Killed More Than 20 MILLION Turkeys And Chickens In The United States

Are you prepared to go without turkey this Thanksgiving?  Yes, it might actually get that bad.  So far, the worst outbreak of bird flu in U.S. history has claimed the lives of more than 20 million turkeys and chickens, and the pandemic continues to rage wildly out of control.  Once one bird becomes infected, this particular strain of the virus is so virulent that it can virtually wipe out an entire flock in just a matter of days.  At this point, scientists think that this virus is being spread by wild birds, but they have no idea how it is getting inside barns and other enclosed facilities so easily.  Considering how important turkey, chicken and eggs are to our food supply, it is quite alarming that scientists don’t really understand what is going on.  If this bird flu outbreak is not brought under control, how many birds will eventually die?  Right now, it is already in the tens of millions.  Could the total eventually reach into the hundreds of millions?

Minnesota is the top producer of turkeys in the United States, and Iowa is the top producer of eggs, and that is why it is so alarming that both of these states are right at the heart of this current outbreak…

    Virulent H5 avian influenza strains have spread to 14 states in five months and affected about 24 million birds so far, mostly egg-laying hens and turkeys, according to USDA.

    That tally is expected to grow, as U.S. authorities confirm pending cases. The outbreak, which is also affecting two Canadian provinces, shows little sign of slowing.

    In Minnesota, the largest producer of U.S. turkeys, state officials said almost 5.5 million turkeys and egg-laying chickens have either died from the flu virus or are set to be killed in an effort to contain the outbreak.

    In Iowa, the top U.S. egg producer, state agriculture officials said an estimated 20 million chickens and turkeys have been affected there.

So just in those two states alone, we are talking about more than 25 million chickens and turkeys that are already dead or that are scheduled to be killed in an attempt to slow down this outbreak.

Things have already gotten so bad that some in the industry are already projecting that this may cause a shortage of turkeys at Thanksgiving…

    And now, with Thanksgiving just seven months away, farmers say they may be running out of time to raise enough turkeys -the traditional centerpiece of holiday feasts – to meet the demand.

    Once a farm has been infected, flocks must be culled, composted in barns, then disposed of. Buildings must then be thoroughly disinfected. The whole process can take up to three months before a new flock of turkey poults can be brought in, said Steve Olson, executive director of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association.

Of course any notion of “recovery” assumes that this outbreak will be shortly brought under control and that breeder farms are not being infected.  But we have already had reports that some breeder farms in Minnesota have been infected.

Last year, the United States produced 240 million turkeys.  Almost 20 percent of them came from Minnesota.  So this outbreak in Minnesota is a really, really big deal.

And if you like to eat eggs, you should expect to start to pay more for them as well.  As of now, this pandemic has already wiped out 6 percent of all “layer hens” in this country…

    Egg producers have been hit hardest. In 2014, 362 million “layer” hens in the U.S. produced 100 billion eggs. With more than 20 million hens now in the process of being culled, nearly 6 percent of the nation’s population has been taken offline.

Even if this pandemic ends very quickly, and that is a huge if, the economic impact would still be huge.  Food producers in the affected states are already starting to lay off workers, and prices for meat and eggs are already starting to rise.

However, what happens if this pandemic cannot be brought under control any time soon and we lose 20, 30 or 40 percent of our turkeys and chickens?

I am recommending that people consider stocking up on canned and frozen meat while they still can.  Prices on those items are certainly not going to be going anywhere but up for the foreseeable future.  And if you can afford it, a second freezer is often a good idea for many families.

The truly frightening thing is that this bird flu pandemic is coming at a time when the U.S. food supply is already under an unprecedented assault.  Just consider some of the things that are currently happening…

-More than 40 percent of our fresh produce comes from the state of California, but thanks to the worst multi-year drought in the history of the state much of the region is turning back into a desert.

-Also due to the persistent drought, the size of the U.S. cattle herd is now as small as it was during the 1950s, and the price of beef has doubled since the last recession.

-Over the past few years, something called “porcine epidemic diarrhea” has wiped out approximately 10 percent of the entire pig population in the United States.

-Just off the west coast of the United States, a wide variety of sea creatures are dying in unprecedented numbers.  For example, the sardine population along the west coast has dropped by a staggering 91 percent just since 2007.

-Down in Florida, citrus greening disease is absolutely crushing the citrus industry.  Crops just keep on getting smaller year after year.

-There is a disease known as the TR4 fungus that is devastating banana production worldwide.  In fact, it has been reported that this fungus could someday completely wipe out the variety of bananas that we commonly eat today.

Are you starting to understand?

Just because we have always been able to rely on massive quantities of extremely inexpensive food does not mean that it will always be that way.

At this point, scientists tell us that the strain of the bird flu that is hitting chickens and turkeys poses “little risk” to humans.  But it does pose a tremendous risk to our food supply – especially if our scientists can’t figure out a way to bring this outbreak under control.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/bird-flu-has-already-killed-more-than-20-million-turkeys-and-chickens-in-the-united-states


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on May 12, 2015, 05:22:44 am
Bird flu found in Indiana; 15th state to report it

A strain of avian flu that until now had been found only in the Western United States has cropped up in Indiana, bringing the total number of states affected by the virulent outbreak to 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday.

The eastward spread of any strain of the highly contagious H5 virus is worrying to farmers and investigators, who have hoped that warmer spring weather would help lower the number of infections in birds and curtail the virus' spread.

The H5N8 strain found in a backyard poultry flock in Indiana is concerning to them also. It is different from the H5N2 strain that has been confirmed in scores of Midwestern farms and resulted in the death or culling of nearly 30 million birds so far.

The highly pathogenic H5N8 strain had been seen only in the Pacific flyway during this outbreak. Federal and state officials have confirmed it in commercial chicken and turkey farms in California and a backyard poultry flock in Oregon. It was also found in captive falcons in Idaho and Washington, according to the USDA.

How the H5N8 virus moved eastward is not yet known.

"We’re working on the epidemiology, but the new finding of H5N8 is mostly likely due to a new introduction by waterfowl," USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service spokeswoman Joelle Hayden said in a statement.

The H5 strains in the current U.S. outbreak pose a low risk to human health, experts say, and no human infections have been identified so far.

EGGS COMPANIES HIT

The U.S. poultry and egg industry has been grappling for months with the biggest outbreak on record of avian influenza in the United States.

The economic ripple effects are starting to be felt, from baked goods companies feeling a squeeze on egg supplies to Hormel Foods Corp unit Jennie-O Turkey Store announcing a planned, temporary layoff of 233 workers at a Minnesota plant because the outbreak has reduced turkey supplies.

On Monday, shares of the largest U.S. egg supplier, Cal-Maine Foods Inc, touched a record high after theflyonthewall.com said research firm Sidoti & Co raised its price target on the stock, citing better egg pricing power following a shortage of egg-laying hens due to the outbreak.

Last week, Post Holdings Inc said that chickens at one of its third-party contractors, which accounts for about 10 percent of the company’s egg supply, had tested positive for bird flu. The company, which said it is analyzing the financial impact of the news, did not respond to requests for comment.

OUTBREAK IN INDIANA

USDA confirmed the Indiana test results on Sunday and the site in Whitley County has been quarantined.

Indiana State Board of Animal Health officials worked with the birds' owner to cull the 77-bird backyard flock before the final positive test came back from the federal laboratory, a spokeswoman told Reuters. The flock was a mix of ducks, chickens, geese and turkeys. The flock was culled on Saturday.

There have been three strains of H5 identified in North America in this outbreak.

The H5N2 strain has been reported in Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin. It has also been identified on farms in British Columbia and Ontario, Canada.

The Canadian authorities also have confirmed the H5N1 strain was found in British Columbia, Canada.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/h5n8-bird-flu-strain-found-backyard-poultry-flock-165938903--sector.html


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on May 13, 2015, 04:19:22 pm
Bird flu outbreak hits Nebraska poultry farm: USDA

The fast-spreading avian flu virus was confirmed for the first time in Nebraska, at a commercial egg-laying farm that housed a flock of 1.7 million chickens, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday.

The case in Dixon County, Nebraska, brings the number of states affected by the outbreak to 16, and the U.S. tally of birds that have either died or will be killed to 32 million.

The U.S. poultry and egg industry has been grappling for months with the biggest outbreak on record of avian influenza in the United States.

Authorities do not know how the H5N2 virus reached the Nebraska farm. The property has been quarantined and the flock will be culled, USDA said.

"Unfortunately, Nebraska has joined a long list of states currently dealing with highly pathogenic avian influenza," said Greg Ibach, director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.

Nebraska farmers and state regulators have voiced growing concern about the virus spreading from neighboring Iowa, where more than 24 million birds from 39 farm sites have been affected.

The worries recently prompted one Nebraska landfill owner to turn down business from a poultry farm in Iowa, whose owners were seeking a place to dispose of a culled flock due to avian influenza, said Brian McManus, spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.

"Some people from our agency met with the landfill owner. We had voiced some concerns about the hazards of transporting poultry carcasses right now, because of the risk of spreading the virus," said McManus, who declined to identify the name of the landfill. "Right now, transporting those birds is an option we discourage."

HEIGHTENED CONCERNS

The continuing spread of the highly contagious H5 virus is worrying to farmers and investigators, who have hoped that warmer spring weather would help lower the number of infections in birds and curtail the virus' spread.

But the outbreak has shown few signs of waning so far. On Monday, a strain of avian flu that had previously been found only in the Western United States cropped up in an Indiana backyard poultry flock.

The H5 strains in the current U.S. outbreak pose a low risk to human health, experts say, and no human infections have been identified so far.

There have been three strains of H5 identified in North America in this outbreak.

In addition to Nebraska, other states with the H5N2 virus are Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin. The virus has also been identified on farms in British Columbia and Ontario, Canada.

The highly pathogenic H5N8 strain had been found in California, Idaho, Indiana, Oregon and Washington. The Canadian authorities also have confirmed the H5N1 strain was found in British Columbia, Canada.

http://news.yahoo.com/bird-flu-outbreak-hits-nebraska-poultry-farm-16th-204902887--sector.html


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on May 15, 2015, 07:41:20 am
Nebraska declares state of emergency in bird flu outbreak

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts declared a state of emergency on Thursday, after federal agriculture officials confirmed a second farm site had tested positive for the rapidly spreading avian flu virus. The declaration follows earlier, similar actions by governors in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, whose states have all been hard hit by the ongoing bird flu outbreak that has led to the culling of more than 33 million birds in 16 U.S. states.   

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/14/us-health-birdflu-usa-idUSKBN0NZ29S20150514


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Psalm 51:17 on May 22, 2015, 09:12:02 pm
http://news.yahoo.com/bird-flu-sweeping-us-flocks-different-past-outbreaks-194316147.html
How the Bird Flu Sweeping Through US Flocks Is Different Than Past Outbreaks
5/22/15

The ongoing outbreak of avian flu has prompted four states to declare a state of emergency and 40 million birds being either infected or culled as a result. An now, Minnesota has canceled its poultry shows at the state fair to protect its prize fowl.

But this outbreak is different from previous outbreaks, some of which have led to human infections in other parts of the globe, experts said.

There are multiple strains of the virus in the H5 family affecting birds -- nearly all of them in the H5N2 strain, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The U.S. outbreak has been devastating to farmers, with tens of millions of birds culled in an effort to head off the virus. The outbreak has already cost $1 billion in the economies of Minnesota and Iowa, which are two of the hardest hit states in the outbreak, according to the Associated Press.

The cost of a dozen eggs has also risen 58 percent, up to $1.88 in parts of the Midwest, according to the AP.

In the Far East and parts of the Middle East, bird flu has also led to fatal human infections, experts said. On the other hand, in the U.S. outbreak, no human has been reported infected with the virus in spite of the large spread of the disease across the nation.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said in previous outbreaks in Asia, where a version of the H5N1 virus wreaked havoc in the mid 2000's, people were in much closer contact with their animals than in the U.S.

The virus lacks the ability to infect human beings easily, said Schaffner, explaining that the virus cannot attach well to the cell in the throat area to infect humans. "Their attachment doesn't fit into the receptor sites of upper part respiratory tract," he said.

The problem occurs when people are in very close contact with their birds -- living cheek-by-jowl with them almost like pets. In those conditions the virus can eventually reach further into their respiratory tract, Schaffner said.

"In those intense exposures [the virus] gets deep into someone’s chest and makes someone sick," said Schaffner. "Even if it’s in that person, it does not readily spread" to other people.

A human infected with avian flu can face severe flu-like symptoms, including high fever, severe respiratory infection and pneumonia, Schaffner said, noting that the fatality rate can be extremely high -- as high as 30 to 40 percent.

While the H5N1 virus was first detected in Asia, it has recently caused an outbreak in Egypt, where 119 people were found to be infected with the virus and 30 died as a result since the beginning of this year.

A genetically different version of an H5N1 virus has recently been found in wild birds in the U.S. and is considered low risk to public health, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After the initial outbreak of H5N1 in Asia, the CDC has stockpiled some version of a human vaccine for the virus in case of a pandemic, but Schaffner said that would likely be a stop-gap measure until a better, more precise vaccine could be developed to counter whatever mutations the virus has picked up.

Another strain of avian influenza is H7N9, which also was first detected in China in 2013. In that initial outbreak, the CDC reported 132 human H7N9 infections, with 44 deaths.

Dr. Stephen Morse, an epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, said that the newer H7N9 virus could be a problem if it spreads from person to person more easily.

"H7N9 might be better able to get into the population and spread," said Morse, but he clarified that has not been definitively proven.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is already testing a vaccine to protect birds in the current outbreak, but Morse said that is not always the answer because of the expense and labor involved.

"You're talking about immunizing billions of animals that are going to live for six months before you send them out," to be culled, Morse noted. "It’s a big, expensive and laborious operation."


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on March 05, 2017, 06:03:20 pm
BIRD FLU DETECTED IN CHICKEN BREEDING FACILITY IN TENNESSEE

A commercial chicken breeding facility in south-central Tennessee has been hit by a strain of bird flu, agriculture officials said Sunday.

The state Agriculture Department said in a news release that tests confirmed the presence of the H7 strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI, at a facility in Lincoln County. The facility alerted the state veterinarian's office on Friday about an increase in chicken deaths.

The statement did not name the facility. The facility and about 30 other poultry farms within about a six-mile radius of the site are under quarantine.

"Animal health is our top priority," said Dr. Charles Hatcher, the state veterinarian. "With this HPAI detection, we are moving quickly and aggressively to prevent the virus from spreading."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said 73,500 chickens are in the facility's flock.

Officials said HPAI poses no risk to the food supply, and no affected chickens entered the food chain.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HPAI can cause up to 100 percent mortality in flocks, often within 48 hours.

"Many Tennessee families rely on the poultry industry for their livelihoods, and the state is working closely with local, county and federal partners and the poultry industry to control the situation and protect the flocks that are critical to our state's economy," Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said.

According to the Tennessee Poultry Association, there are more than 1,650 commercial broiler and breeder houses on more than 550 family farms in the state. The state ranks 13th nationally in broiler production and processing with more than 6 million birds per week at five plants.

The statement said the most recent U.S. detection of HPAI was in January 2016 in a commercial turkey flock in Indiana. More than 414,000 turkeys and chickens were euthanized to contain the outbreak.

In 2015, U.S. poultry producers, primarily in the upper Midwest, lost more than 48 million birds to bird flu. Minnesota, the country's top turkey producer, and Iowa, the top chicken-egg producer, were the hardest-hit states.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BIRD_FLU_TENNESSEE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-05-14-12-11


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on March 14, 2017, 09:15:46 pm
Poultry breeder Aviagen culls U.S. flock over bird flu fears

Aviagen [EWESJA.UL], the world's leading poultry breeding company, has euthanized chickens at a farm in Alabama over concerns about bird flu, the company said on Tuesday, as likely cases of the disease emerged in a top chicken-producing state.

Alabama officials said they suspected that poultry at three sites in the state were infected with the virus, about a week after some 90,500 chickens were culled over infections at two commercial operations across the border in Tennessee.

Aviagen detected the presence of antibodies for the flu virus in a flock in Alabama that showed "no evidence of clinical disease," company spokeswoman Marla Robinson said in an email. The company is based in Alabama.

The company euthanized the flock and "all eggs which were collected from that farm in the production system were traced and removed," she said. Aviagen did not respond to a question about how many birds were killed.

Tony Frazier, Alabama's state veterinarian, said the company chose to cull about 15,000 birds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said the farm had 153,000 birds.

A national USDA lab is testing samples from poultry in Alabama to identify the strain of the virus and how lethal it is for birds, after another agency-approved lab identified the H7 subtype of the disease in samples, USDA spokeswoman Lyndsay Cole said.

The birds in Alabama did not show clinical signs of sickness, which indicates they did not have a highly lethal, or pathogenic, form of the virus, Cole said.

In Tennessee, both cases were identified as H7N9. The USDA on March 5 confirmed that one was the United States' first infection of highly pathogenic flu in commercial poultry in a year. Days later, the state said it had found the other case nearby and it was low pathogenic.

Highly pathogenic bird flu led to the deaths of about 50 million birds, mostly egg-laying hens, in the United States in 2014 and 2015.

Another highly pathogenic outbreak would likely represent a financial blow for poultry operators such as Tyson Foods Inc and Pilgrim's Pride Corp because it would kill more birds or require flocks to be culled.

It also would likely trigger more import bans from trading partners, after South Korea, Japan and other countries limited imports after the highly pathogenic case in Tennessee.

Health officials have said the risk of bird flu spreading to people from poultry or making food unsafe was low.

Separately, Frazier said the owner of a backyard flock suspected of having the virus chose to cull about 70 birds. No poultry linked to the third suspected case, which involved birds at a flea market, have been culled, he said.

Frazier said the cases were still only suspected flu infections and needed to be confirmed by the USDA. Earlier, the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries called a news conference to discuss what it said were three findings of avian influenza.

Alabama raised more than 1 billion chickens for meat in 2015, making it the country's third largest producer, according to the USDA.

The national USDA laboratory, to which samples from the state were sent, is the only one in the United States that officially confirms cases.

The World Organization for Animal Health requires that all confirmed low-pathogenic H5 and H7 bird flu subtypes be reported because of their potential to mutate into highly pathogenic strains. Highly pathogenic cases also must be reported.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/alabama-reports-three-cases-bird-flu-poultry-144549400--finance.html


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on June 15, 2018, 06:57:50 pm
Terrifying new strain of bird flu that kills nearly HALF of those who contract it discovered in China amid fears of new global pandemic


‘DISEASE X’ FEARS

The newly formed virus, named H7N9, has killed over 600 people in China

A NEW strain of deadly bird flu which kills 38 per cent of those infected and could spark a global pandemic has been identified in China.

Scientists around the world believe the new pathogen, dubbed “Disease X”, could be as lethal as 1918 Spanish flu which killed up to 100million people.

 EPA
A new strain of bird flu has killed hundreds in China and could spark a worldiwde outbreak. File picture

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England, told The Telegraph that virus H7N9, which is circulating poultry in China, could cause a global outbreak.

He said: “[H7N9] is an example of another virus which has proven its ability to transmit from birds to humans.

“It’s possible that it could be the cause of the next pandemic.”

In China, the deadly pathogen has killed 623 of the 1,625 people which have been infected.

 AFP - Getty
H7N9, which currently cannot be spread from person to person, could prove as deadly as Spanish flu, experts claim. File picture

How can you prevent bird flu?

The NHS reveal ways you can avoid contracting bird flu:

    avoid visiting live animal markets and poultry farms
    avoid contact with surfaces that are contaminated with bird droppings
    don’t pick up or touch birds (dead or alive)
    don’t eat or handle undercooked or raw poultry, egg or duck dishes
    don’t bring any live poultry products back to the UK, including feathers
    always practise good personal hygiene, such as washing your hands regularly

While the virus cannot yet be passed from person to person, experts believe it is only three mutations away from being able to spread from human contact.

The symptoms of H7N9 include a high fever, cough and shortness of breath which can then develop into pneumonia.

Once the disease has developed, those infected develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock and organ failure.

Older people, pregnant women and those with existing health problems are most at risk, according to the World Health Organization.

Bird flu can spread to people when they have direct contact with the infection.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/2790957/terrifying-new-strain-of-bird-flu-that-kills-nearly-half-of-those-who-contract-it-discovered-in-china-amid-fears-of-new-global-pandemic/


Title: Re: Bird Flu 2013/2014/15-16...
Post by: Mark on August 20, 2018, 09:02:52 am
Bird flu kills one in Vietnam

Virus H5N1 was detected in the post-mortem blood tests of the 60-year-old victim who died Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City, Xinhua reported, citing provincial health officials. In a statement, Pasteur Institute said six separate H5N1 cases have been identified in Vietnam’s south.

http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/204858/bird-flu-kills-one-in-vietnam