Thailand ready to host international meeting on bird flu

[Mellie]

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/20...11_241877.html

Thailand ready to host international meeting on bird flu

Thailand is willing to host a new international conference on bird flu and to assist neighboring countries in containing the disease as requested by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to local media report Saturday.

The report said that Thai Public Health Minister Pinij Jarusombat told journalists Friday after meeting with WHO Director for Asia and the Pacific Dr. Samlee Plianbangchang and representatives of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) that he had discussed with the UN officials the planned international conference on bird flu in which ministers concerned from more than 30 countries will take part in.

The international meeting will be hosted by India in April, Pinij said.
However, "I have offered that if India is not ready, Thailand is willing to host the meeting and plans to invite other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and three key dialogue partners -- China, Japan and South Korea -- known as ASEAN+3 to participate in the meeting," he said.

WHO has expressed its satisfaction with Thailand's effective measures on preventing and containing avian flu and has asked the kingdom to assist its neighboring countries in containing the disease, Pinij said, adding that the WHO regional director also invited Thai public health officials to visit the WHO office in India.

The forthcoming international conference on bird flu will focus on cooperation between public health and livestock officials in preventing and containing bird flu outbreaks in each country, strengthening international cooperation in avian flu and preparations for sufficient stocks of vaccines and Oseltamivir or Tamiflu, the main medicine now used for an anti-bird flu treatment.

Source: Xinhua

[HenryN]

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/0602...l/439773a.html

Thai dogs carry bird-flu virus, but will they spread it?
H5N1 antibodies found in village dogs and cats.
Declan Butler

Large numbers of domestic dogs and cats in Thailand may be infected with the H5N1 strain of avian flu, Nature has learned. Experts are struggling to work out whether such carnivores might be spreading the disease.

In an unpublished study carried out last year by the National Institute of Animal Health in Bangkok, researchers led by virologist Sudarat Damrongwatanapokin tested 629 village dogs and 111 cats in the Suphan Buri district of central Thailand. Out of these, 160 dogs and 8 cats had antibodies to H5N1, indicating that they were infected with the virus or had been infected in the past. "That's a lot," says Albert Osterhaus, a virologist at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. "This is definitely something to look into." So far, researchers at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University have isolated the virus from at least one of the dogs.

Wild cats, including tigers, are known to be susceptible to the virus, but this is the first scientific study to find it in dogs, suggesting that infection could be widespread. Osterhaus is pressing officials at the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health to monitor dogs, cats and other carnivores for H5N1. "It's a gap in our surveillance," he says. "Basically all carnivores seem susceptible."

This study is the first to look at the prevalence of the virus in dogs or cats in the field - despite anecdotal reports of cat deaths near poultry outbreaks. But Osterhaus's team has done experiments showing that domestic cats get ill and die from H5N1, and can transmit the disease to other cats (T. Kuiken et al. Science 306, 241; 2004).

And last month, a team from his lab published experiments showing that infected cats excrete virus in their faeces as well as in coughed-out droplets, suggesting that they could spread the disease (G. F. Rimmelzwaan et al. Am. J. Pathol. 168, 176-183; 2006).

"It is still uncertain what role, if any, this might play in transmission," says Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization. "We do not have a full understanding of the viral load needed for human infection, and whether or not the infection of animals other than poultry might contribute."

Juan Lubroth, a senior FAO animal-health officer, says that poultry - not cats and dogs - is the priority for the agency, whose mandate is food security and agricultural livestock issues. The FAO "has only limited resources", he says.

As there is no evidence of dogs becoming ill or spreading H5N1, Lubroth believes the risk they pose is low. "It may be important, but today I am not able to cover all bases. Tomorrow I could be criticized for being wrong; I will have to accept that responsibility."

[HenryN]

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02...Dogs_Cats.html

[dreamseeer]

If this mutates into a more viralent form it will be the dogs revenge against orientals keeping them in such inhumane conditions, killing them inhumanely and then eating them.

Sorry about my anger.

Unfortunately.....if this happens it will also be the cause of a whole sale slaughter of dogs (knee-jerk-reaction).........man's best friend in America.
I sure hope it never comes to that.

[Mellie]

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/0602...l/439773a.html

Thai dogs carry bird-flu virus, but will they spread it?

H5N1 antibodies found in village dogs and cats.

Declan Butler

Large numbers of domestic dogs and cats in Thailand may be infected with the H5N1 strain of avian flu, Nature has learned. Experts are struggling to work out whether such carnivores might be spreading the disease.

In an unpublished study carried out last year by the National Institute of Animal Health in Bangkok, researchers led by virologist Sudarat Damrongwatanapokin tested 629 village dogs and 111 cats in the Suphan Buri district of central Thailand. Out of these, 160 dogs and 8 cats had antibodies to H5N1, indicating that they were infected with the virus or had been infected in the past. "That's a lot," says Albert Osterhaus, a virologist at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. "This is definitely something to look into." So far, researchers at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University have isolated the virus from at least one of the dogs.

Wild cats, including tigers, are known to be susceptible to the virus, but this is the first scientific study to find it in dogs, suggesting that infection could be widespread. Osterhaus is pressing officials at the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health to monitor dogs, cats and other carnivores for H5N1. "It's a gap in our surveillance," he says. "Basically all carnivores seem susceptible."

This study is the first to look at the prevalence of the virus in dogs or cats in the field - despite anecdotal reports of cat deaths near poultry outbreaks. But Osterhaus's team has done experiments showing that domestic cats get ill and die from H5N1, and can transmit the disease to other cats (T. Kuiken et al. Science 306, 241; 2004).

And last month, a team from his lab published experiments showing that infected cats excrete virus in their faeces as well as in coughed-out droplets, suggesting that they could spread the disease (G. F. Rimmelzwaan et al. Am. J. Pathol. 168, 176-183; 2006).

"It is still uncertain what role, if any, this might play in transmission," says Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization. "We do not have a full understanding of the viral load needed for human infection, and whether or not the infection of animals other than poultry might contribute."

Juan Lubroth, a senior FAO animal-health officer, says that poultry - not cats and dogs - is the priority for the agency, whose mandate is food security and agricultural livestock issues. The FAO "has only limited resources", he says.

As there is no evidence of dogs becoming ill or spreading H5N1, Lubroth believes the risk they pose is low. "It may be important, but today I am not able to cover all bases. Tomorrow I could be criticized for being wrong; I will have to accept that responsibility."

[Mellie]

H5N1 in Dogs and Cats

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/0..._Dogs_Cats.html

Recombinomics Commentary
February 14, 2006

In an unpublished study carried out last year by the National Institute of Animal Health in Bangkok, researchers led by virologist Sudarat Damrongwatanapokin tested 629 village dogs and 111 cats in the Suphan Buri district of central Thailand. Out of these, 160 dogs and 8 cats had antibodies to H5N1, indicating that they were infected with the virus or had been infected in the past.

The above comments on H5N1 in dogs and cats are not a surprise. H5N1 has been isolated from fatal infections of leopards and tigers in Thai zoos. H5N1 has also been isolated from a domestic cat and has been experimentally transmitted in laboratory cats.

Similarly, although an earlier report of H5N1 detected in a dog in Thailand was denied, later media reports indicated the original report was accurate and the denial was part of a cover-up.

In Croatia dogs were being destroyed and media reports included pictures of dead dogs and cats. Other unconfirmed reports indicate dead hyenas litter the roadside in Nigeria.

H3N8 has been found in racing and companion dogs in the United States providing additional evidence for expanding hosts ranges for influenza.

The large number of wild birds infected with H5N1 may provide a mechanism for infection of a wide range of carnivores. The number of countries reporting dead swans has increased dramatically in the past several days, and reports of H5N1 in the East Atlantic Flyway suggests the global spread of H5N1 will continue.

The expanded geographical reach and host range of H5N1 is cause for concern. The spread of H5N1 allows for more dual infections, recombinations, and new sequences causing new problems. Moreover, these new sequences can increase the affinity for human receptors, such as S227N, and can be generated in avian hosts infected with H5N1 and H9N2 as predicted previously.

Map

Media Resources

[Mellie]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4198267.htm

Bird flu kills Thai boy
www.chinaview.cn

2006/02/18

BANGKOK, Feb. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- A 5-year-old boy in Thai Nakhon Nayok province outside Bangkok has died of bird flu, becoming the 14th Thai victim of avian influenza, local media reported Saturday.

News of the death of the youngster came as a shock. Thailand has been largely free of bird flu in the past two months, since a small outbreak killed a man last October, the Bangkok Post said on its web edition.

The boy died in hospital on Wednesday, Thai Deputy Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakula was quoted as saying. He was not known to have had direct contact with chickens, but investigations are continuing.

The death brings the Asian death toll from H5N1 avian flu to 70.