Even as India struggles to contain bird flu, France has reported its second case of the dreaded H5N1 virus in a wild duck. Laboratory reports confirmed the presence of the virus in a duck in the Ain region in eastern France. The first duck that died due to avian flu was found in the same region in a village called Joyeux.
According to the French agriculture ministry, the second duck had a strain of H5N1 virus that was “99 per cent homologous with the virus identified in the wild duck in Joyeux on Saturday”. Preventive measures like close monitoring of the area and vaccination of poultry would now be enforced to curb the disease from spreading further, the ministry added.
The rapid spread of the disease is worrying medical experts the world over. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), outbreaks of the disease have been noted in poultry farms in Kano, Plateau, Katsina, Bauchi and Abuja regions of Nigeria.
“Rapid spread of the virus within Nigeria has raised concern over the possible spread to neighboring countries,” a statement on the WHO's Web site said. “The scale of the outbreak in birds is not yet fully understood. Little is known about the presence of the virus in small backyard flocks, where the greatest risk of human exposures and infections resides,” the statement added.
In addition, Indonesia reported a human case on Wednesday, when a 27-year-old woman died of avian flu in Jakarta. Russia also announced that it has quarantined 17 villages after three farms were found to have infected birds. “We've never seen so many outbreaks of the same virus in so many different regions. Our concern obviously is that humans could potentially come into contact with birds infected with H5N1, which would mean populations worldwide are potentially at risk,” said Maria Cheng, a spokesperson for WHO.
Meanwhile, in India, health officials were busy with the mass slaughter of 700,000 birds in the state of Maharashtra where bird flu killed thousands of birds. The culling of the birds was completed within 3 km radius of Navapur in Nandurbar district where the H5N1 virus was first noted, said Vijay Kumar, Maharashtra's animal husbandry commissioner. But the culling has now been expanded to 10 km radius of the region, even as 80,000 more birds have been marked for slaughter.
Also, over 48 poultry farms around Navapur have been ordered vacated and shut for a period of three months. Movement of trains and outstation vehicles in the area has been curbed to prevent outsiders from coming in contact with the virus. “We want to minimize contact between the local people and outsiders. We are telling road travelers to use masks and get on with their journeys without stopping,” state health director T P Doke said.
To check for the disease in humans, state authorities have isolated 12 people on suspicions of bird flu. Seven from these have been found to be free of avian flu. Test reports on the remaining five are awaited. “We should know by today the status of the five people,” said Vijay Satbir Singh, the state's health chief. So far, India has tested 95 people who exhibited flu-like symptoms for the H5N1 virus, but 90 were found to be virus-free.
In spite of the government's assurances that it was safe to eat chicken, the sales and prices of poultry fell sharply in India, as eateries, airlines and even government-run cafeterias snipped chicken and eggs off their menus.
So far, bird flu has infected 170 humans all over the world with 92 of them having succumbed to the disease.
