India: It?s Spreading

[Clytie]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

(Copy of Kissa's post from breaking news)


INDIA Bird flu confirmed (& rumors of humans) 18.2.06
8 confirmed cases of bird flu in India

Agencies
Posted online: Saturday, February 18, 2006 at 1638 hours IST
Updated: Saturday, February 18, 2006 at 1654 hours IST

New Delhi, February 18: The Animal Husbandry department has confirmed eight cases of bird flu in Maharashtra. Three reports have come in from the Nandurbar district of Maharashtra.

This is for the first time that this disease has been reported in India. However, there are no reports of infected people.

A team of microbiologists have been stationed at the poultry and various tests are being performed. The area has been sealed off and no one is being allowed inside so that the virus does not spread.

The Animal Husbandry department will also be informing the people about the hazards of the disease and ask them to maintain complete hygiene

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=63075

[Clytie]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

(Copy of Kissa's post from breaking news)

Indian officials say have confirmed country?s first bird flu virus case


(AFP)
18 February 2006

MUMBAI - Indian government officials on Saturday said that a laboratory had confirmed the country?s first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in chickens.

?Fifty-thousand birds have died. We have sent dead birds to the highest level laboratory in (the state of) Bhopal. They have confirmed H5N1 bird flu? in chickens, said Anees Ahmed, the minister for animal husbandry for western Maharashtra state."
He said the outbreak was at a chicken farm of some 200,000 birds at Nandurbar near the border with Gujarat state.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2006/February/subcontinent_February764.xml&section=subcontinent& col=

[Clytie]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

(Copy of Niman's post in breaking news)

Re: INDIA Bird flu confirmed 18.2.06

Maps updated

http://www.recombinomics.com/H5N1_Map_2006_AfricaF.html

http://www.recombinomics.com/H5N1_Ma..._QinghaiL.html

[Clytie]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

(Copy of Niman's post from breaking news)

Re: INDIA Bird flu confirmed 18.2.06

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02...5N1_India.html

[Clytie]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

(Copy of Kissa's post in breaknig news)

India testing humans for bird flu virus-official
18 Feb 2006 15:34:10 GMT
Source: Reuters


NEW DELHI, Feb 18 (Reuters) - India is testing eight human beings for the H5N1 bird flu virus while four more are being kept under observation, federal Health Secretary P.K. Hota told Reuters on Saturday.

"We are testing eight humans for bird flu virus in the affected area in Maharashtra. Their blood samples have been sent to testing. Four, including three children, are being kept under observation," Hota said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP264824.htm

[Clytie]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

(Copy of Kissa'a post in breaking news)

Avian bird flu: 8 people admitted to hospital

[ Saturday, February 18, 2006 09:52:19 pmPTI ]

DHULE (MAHARASHTRA): Eight people were on Saturday admitted to a government hospital at Navapur, for suspected bird flu and about 80 blood samples were sent to laboratory for test, health department sources said here.

Around two lakh chickens were destroyed at Navapur and buried as a precautionary measure, on Saturday.

There are 57 poultries around Navapur.

Sources said since past two-days death of at least 20,000 chickens was reported at Navapur in Nandurbar district of north Maharashtra.
Official sources here said eight of the 11 chicken samples sent to Bhopal's laboratory for confirming Bird Flu were found positive.

Meanwhile, Animal Husbandary, Commissioner, Vijay Kumar, on Saturday conducted a meeting of concerned officials to discuss steps to prevent the further spread of the disease.

Navapur Municipal Council has issued notices to the mutton shop-owners to close-down their shops with immediate effect, sources added.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...ow/1419936.cms

[Clytie]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

(Copy of Kissa's post in breaking news)

No need to panic, govt. mistaken

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...46,curpg-1.cms
PUNE: The death of thousands of birds in Nandurbar district is not due to bird flu, as declared by the state government, according to Anuradha Desai, chairperson of the National Egg Co-ordination Committee and Venkateshwara Hatcheries Private Ltd (VHPL), the country's largest poultry company.

"It is some mistake. I am surprised and shocked at how the government has declared that it is bird flu on the basis of just one report," Desai said.

Speaking to TOI, Desai said there has not been a single case of bird flu at the Poultry Diagnostic and Research Centre, a sister concern of Venkateshwara Hatcheries.

According to her, Union agricultural minister Sharad Pawar has agreed for samples to be sent to another laboratory in India and one abroad for a second opinion. Desai said the deaths are more likely due to a seasonal disease called Ranikhet or Newcastle, which usually occurs at the onset of summer. "There's no need for alarm as it is a routine situation", she said.

Moreover, the poultry farmers in the region, where maximum deaths occurred, neither discarded the birds in time nor vaccinated them against Ranikhet, she said.

"In this case, they kept some of the birds for 100 weeks because the prices of eggs were good. Therefore, the effect of the vaccination, which usually lasts for 72-weeks, would have run out," Desai said.

[Clytie]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

(Copy of Kissa's post from breaking news)

Delhi has a familiar disease



RASHEED KIDWAI

Bhopal, Feb. 18: Rapiddissemination of information ? that?s the cornerstone of the fight against any contagion, but not if Delhi can help it.

The High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal, the only one in Asia equipped to deal with bird flu, developed cold feet for a few hours this evening after confirming that the deadly virus has arrived in India.

?Yes, it is bird flu,? an official confirmed in the afternoon. Hours later, however, he was less sure: ?It was a preliminary report and we need to confirm it.?

The official had been taking calls from across the country. However, sources in Delhi said a few calls from the capital made the officials of the lab clam up.

The sources said some decision-makers in Delhi were upset with the laboratory for creating a ?scare?. They feared that businesses such as poultry, tourism and aviation would be hit and conveyed their displeasure to the lab.


By night, however, an official at the lab again confirmed that some samples had tested positive. ?But there is no need to panic,? he added.

[Clytie]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

(Copy of Niman's post in breaking news)

Re: INDIA Bird flu confirmed (& rumors of humans) 18.2.06

Map updated

http://www.recombinomics.com/H5N1_Map_2006_AfricaF.html

[Clytie]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

(Copy of Niman's post in breaking news)

Re: INDIA Bird flu confirmed (& rumors of humans) 18.2.06

Commentary at

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

[Clytie]

How did virus get to India?

How did virus get to India?

- By Sridhar Kumaraswami


New Delhi, Feb. 19:

A day after the outbreak of bird flu in the country, the Union government remains clueless about how the infection reached Nandurbar district of Maharashtra. "We have not yet established how the bird flu reached Nandurbar. Migratory birds are believed to spread the infection, but there is no evidence of this," said animal husbandry joint secretary Upma Chawdhry. Migratory birds fly to the country from China and Central Asia during winter to escape the extreme cold in those regions.

"Our information is that there are no water bodies (believed to be frequented by migratory birds) in Nandurbar. So it?s surprising how migratory birds could have spread the infection there," pointed out animal husbandry commissioner S.K. Bandhopadhyay. "We may also check for signs of any illegal import of birds by traders in the region. Import of poultry from outside the country was banned two years ago," said Mr Bandhopadhyay. "We will check for signs of any illegal import of vaccines for the poultry. We will also explore whether any wild birds in the region could have picked up the flu from migratory birds," he added.

Health ministry officials say that "the role of migratory birds in the spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza is not fully understood". But officials say "considerable circumstantial evidence suggests that migratory birds can introduce low pathogenic H5 and H7 viruses to poultry flocks, following which the virus mutates to a highly pathogenic form", resulting in the deaths of lakhs of poultry and creating the danger of the infection spreading to human beings as well.
"We propose to conduct an epidemiological study of the Nandurbar region after the process of culling of birds is over," revealed Mr Bandhopadhyay. The epidemiological study will comprise both geographic and human studies in the region as well as disease patterns. "Only then can something be conclusively stated," the animal husbandry commissioner said.

[HenryN]

Re: INDIA Bird flu confirmed (& rumors of humans) 18.2.06

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/article...276891&sid=REG

Mother, Son having 'mild flu' admitted to hospital

Navapur (Maha), Feb 20: The mother and brother of a 27-year-old man, who the authorities said died of "acute respiratory distress" and not because of Bird Flu, have shown symptoms of mild flu and have been hospitalised here.

Ganesh Bhai Ramesh Bhai Sonar, who hailed from Navapur, died yesterday in a hospital in neighbouring Surat and officials said his death was due to acute respiratory distress and was not related to the avian influenza.

They said he had "no exposure to poultry". Ramesh Sonar, father of Ganesh, said today that his wife and another son, who were with the deceased when he was admitted to the hospital in Surat, have shown some symptoms of mild flu and have been hospitalised here.

"The hospital authorities were not telling us anything about their condition. The entire hospital has been cordoned off," he said.

Bureau Report

[UKMum]

Re: Summer heat could defeat bird flu virus

Remember 1918, the summer didnt stop it.

[Sally Furniss]

Re: 15,000 Birds Dead in Nandubar

Chicken Death Probe

Pradhan said animal husbandry officials suspect the chickens died of Ranikhet, an infectious poultry disease caused by a virus. Three years ago, it had claimed more than 10,000 birds in north India, he said.

Ranikhet is Newcastle disease.

[DB]

Re: First suspected human death from bird flu in India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...03,curpg-1.cms

MUMBAI: Confirming that it was bird flu and not Ranikhet disease that was killing thousands of chicken in Nawapur taluka of Nandurbar district in the past fortnight, state officials hit out at poultry giants for hiding the outbreak from the government.

"For at least two to three days before it came to our notice, birds had been dying in various poultry farms but we were not told about it," Maharashtra animal husbandry secretary Uttam Khobragade told TOI on Monday.

"The poultry farmers tried to deal with the crisis themselves. They buried the birds," he added. Khobragade was only repeating what government officials had told TOI on Saturday, but only more directly.

TOI had on Sunday quoted them as saying that there was "an attempt to hide the sudden death of chickens". "After we got wind of it, the administration initially thought it could be the seasonal Ranikhet disease, nevertheless we sent the samples to Bhopal for tests.

After 96 hours, the tests showed it to be bird flu," an official had said on Saturday, when the news first broke out. State animal husbandry commissioner Bijay Kumar too had independently corroborated Khobragade's statement.

"Poultry giants buying livestock from Nawapur should have alerted the animal husbandry department earlier. We learnt about the unusally high number of bird deaths from newspaper reports," he said, speaking over the phone from Nawapur on Saturday.

Kumar also said that the administration was looking at what action could be initiated against the poultry firms for concealing the outbreak.

"We have been asking for fresh samples to be taken. But now that the culling is over, these kind of statements are completely unfair and uncalled for.

It's nothing but harassment?because we were the first to open our mouths," said Anuradha Desai, CEO of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, which is the biggest player in the poultry business.

The debate on whether it is actually avian flu (caused by the H5N1 virus) or some other viral disease (like Ranikhet of the Newcastle family of viruses, which kill large number of birds, but do not affect humans) affecting northern Maharashtra's poultry farms dominated Khobragade's press briefing on Monday.

Bird flu is a relatively new virus (H5N1) which was first detected in 1997 in China. Flu bouts have since recurred in avian population across three continents including 20 countries.

Around 190 cases of the H5N1 virus have been reported in human beings, with half of them succumbing to the infection. The World Health Organisation had last year forewarned countries, including India, that lie in the flypath of migratory birds (carriers of the H5N1 virus) to brace themselves for a bird flu outbreak.

Yet Indian poultry farmers reacted with scepticism to the govern ment diagnosis on Saturday, insisting it is the Ranikhet virus that is felling their birds.