Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

[HenryN]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

Fairy tale #1:

http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0818-wcs_flu.html

Wildlife Conservation Society Release - August 18, 2005

<TABLE align=left><TBODY><TR><TD><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--google_ad_client = "pub-5292544863418232";google_alternate_ad_url = "http://primates.mongabay.com/ads/adsense160.html";google_ad_width = 160;google_ad_height = 600;google_ad_format = "160x600_as";google_ad_type = "text";//2007-04-04: newsgoogle_ad_channel ="6818334511";google_color_border = "FFFFFF";google_color_bg = "FFFFFF";google_color_link = "337700";google_color_url = "000000";google_color_text = "000000";//--></SCRIPT><SCRIPT src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>NEW YORK, NY (August 18, 2005)--The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has positively identified the pathogenic form of avian flu--H5N1--in samples taken from birds last week in Mongolia by field veterinarians from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). It is the first instance of this viral strain occurring in wild migratory birds with no apparent contact to domestic poultry or waterfowl.

Present in Mongolia for a health survey of wild bird populations in the south and north of the country, WCS field vets Drs. William Karesh and Martin Gilbert responded to initial reports of the most recent avian influenza outbreak in Kovsgol Province near the Russian border from the Mongolian Ministry of Food and Agriculture, which conducted preliminary testing of birds that died at Erkhel Lake. Their finding coincided with confirmations of cases of avian influenza in Russia and Kazakhstan. Karesh and Gilbert immediately traveled to the site with a team of Mongolian virologists, veterinarians, and public health officials. Approximately 100 dead birds were found at the site.

The team--including personnel from WCS, the Mongolian National Academy of Sciences, the Mongolian Institute of Veterinary Medicine, the State Central Veterinary Laboratory, Ministry of Food and Agriculture Veterinary Department, and the Ministry of Health Mongolian Center of Communicable Diseases with Natural Foci--collected samples from hundreds of wild birds, both live and dead including, ruddy shelduck, herring gull, black-headed gull, bar-headed goose, whooper swan, and Eurasian wigeon that are all at risk for contracting the virus.

Recent reports of influenza outbreaks in wild birds in China and Russia have failed to put die-offs in perspective with the numbers of unaffected birds, thus there was no way to assess the impact. The WCS team at Erkhel Lake in Mongolia collected this information for the first time. Overall, over 6,500 apparently healthy birds of 55 species were observed on the lake. The percentage of sick or dead birds was miniscule according to Gilbert following the survey, suggesting that either the virus had little effect on the birds or that very few were actually infected by the bug. Early results suggest that it may be the latter.

Supported by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O.), the team has sent the samples (774 in total) to the U.S.D.A.'s Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, for further testing to determine whether this virus is the H5N1 strain that has killed over 50 people in Southeast Asia and more than 5,000 wild birds in western China. As of today, preliminary tests from one dead whooper swan collected in Mongolia have shown the presence of the H5N1 strain of Avian Influenza using RT-PCR, while results from 30 live whooper swans living at the same site and also a nearby lake were negative for the virus. Samples collected from other live birds at the two sites, including sixty ruddy shelducks, twenty-four bar-headed geese, and twenty-five black-headed gulls, were found to be negative for the virus.

[HenryN]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

Expanded fairy tale #1 as popular press distributes spoon fed drivel:

http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0818-wcs_flu.html

Group questions whether wild birds carry much flu By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent Thu Aug 18, 6:38 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An outbreak of avian flu in Mongolia seems to have died out quickly on its own, wildlife experts said on Thursday, raising questions about how easily migrating birds will spread the virus.

They said only about 100 birds seemed to have succumbed to the virus in an outbreak at Erkhel Lake, near where the borders of Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia meet.

At least some of the birds that died carried an H5 avian influenza virus, said Wildlife Conservation Society veterinarian William Karesh.

But he cautioned that it has not been confirmed as the frightening H5N1 virus that is affecting flocks in China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Russia and perhaps also Kazakhstan.

"We found it was H5 influenza," Karesh told Reuters in a telephone interview.

But only about 100 of the 6,500 birds on the lake, representing 55 different species, had died, he added.

"So we are talking about a tiny percentage of mortality," he said.

Avian influenza has decimated flocks of chickens in an outbreak that started in 2003, and has killed about 50 people. Experts fear it will eventually acquire the ability to spread easily from person to person and cause a global pandemic of exceptionally deadly influenza.

No one is sure how it is spreading, but migrating birds are a prime suspect. Officials fear migrating birds could export the virus to Western Europe, Africa and the Middle East over coming months.

In Russia it has spread across Siberia to the Ural mountains, the geographic divide between Asia and Europe.

Karesh led a team to Mongolia because of its position on the borders of countries involved.

While there, they heard birds were dying at a small lake called Lake Erkhel so they went there.

LOW IMPACT

"Sure enough, birds were dying," Karesh said. They sampled some of the dead swans, geese and gulls, and also collected samples from healthy birds.

"In this situation it had a very low impact," Karesh said.

"It makes the disease self-limiting in wild birds."

Karesh said he will wait for full results of tests being done by U.S. Department of Agriculture labs in Georgia on the samples taken from healthy birds at the lake, as well as tests to confirm the dead birds carried H5N1 and not another H5 virus.

Experts say the key to spreading influenza would be healthy birds that are not sickened by the virus. If the virus kills an animal quickly, it is less likely to spread it.

"Currently, all evidence points to domestic ducks as the ones who can shed it and transmit it and not get sick," Karesh said.

But the jury is out on wild birds as being major spreaders of the virus, Karesh said. "If we have lots of wild birds shedding it and they look healthy, that would be pretty good evidence that they are," he said.

"The key to this is better security on poultry production," he added. If farmer use fencing, roofing and clean water to separate ducks and chickens from wild birds, that will likely limit the spread of the disease, he said.

The Dutch Agriculture Ministry has done that, saying on Tuesday it would make farmers keep all poultry indoors to prevent contact with migrating birds. German officials are considering similar measures.

But on Thursday Russian media reported that some Russian regions have opened the hunting season early for wild birds to try to limit the spread.

[HenryN]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

Tompe, I am not sure I understand the nuances of the discussion in this thread, so if I misrepresent your position please let me know. I imply from your posts that, while bird migration might explain a small fraction or percentage of the current distribution of H5N1, you believe that almost all or a substantial portion of the geographic distribution of H5N1 can be attributed to trade and human transportation of infected species.

That is, you have basically proposed a hypothesis that it is not wild bird migration but trade and transportation of infect birds that explains the current worldwide distribution of H5N1. Any good hypothesis should have predictive power, it should not merely be based on post hoc correlation of transportation links and nodes with confirmed H5N1 samples. Given your trade and transportation hypothesis, will you provide a prediction where the next outbreaks of H5N1 will occur and perhaps speculate on which species might be identified with these next outbreaks?

The wildlife conservation fairy tale goes well beyond the interpretation above. It is a major propaganda campaign that maintains that wild bird H5N1 infections are due to commercial poultry (wild birds as victims) and wild birds don't transport of transmit H5N1 (dead birds don't fly).

This propaganda campaign began in earnest after H5N1 was discovered in wild birds at Qinghai Lake in May, 2005. Wildlife conservation groups decended onto message boards, published in ProMed, and "helped out" in the generation of false negatives in live wild birds (who, not coincidentally are the same people testing for H5N1 in the United States - well into the foxes guardiong the hen house category).

As noted in the press releases and media reports above, the party line in 2005 really hasn't changed, even though H5N1 has now spread into 50 counries, all of the H5N1 west of China is the Qinghai strain, and most of the Qinghai isolates in Europe have only been found in wild birds (after hopping from one nature reserve to another to mark the spread).

Now H5N1 is endemic in Europe, appearing in resident species at multiple locations over an extended time period in Germany, where there are ZERO outbreaks on farms (only positive has been ONE pet goose) and there was ONE domestic outbreak in 2006 (in Saxony), yet Germany led countries in Europe in 2006 and 2007 with confirmed wild bird cases (over 340 each year).

The fairy tales put out by these groups were nonsense in 2005, and remarkably, the same nonsense is being distributed in 2007.

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

How far back in testing history do we have AI positives for wild birds? 100 years? Where were the testing sites? I believe some were quite remote from farms.

How far back in testing history do we have AI postives for domestic poultry?

Were ALL those wild birds over about 100 years infected from poultry?

.

[HenryN]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

How far back in testing history do we have AI positives for wild birds? 100 years? Where were the testing sites? I believe some were quite remote from farms.

How far back in testing history do we have AI postives for domestic poultry?

Were ALL those wild birds over about 100 years infected from poultry?

.

Actually, everyone agrees that avian influenza is in wild birds. The fairy tale centers on the commercial birds causing high path influenza and now acting as a reservoir that infects wild birds.

In Asia, the direction of the infections was difficult, because H5N1 was everywhere. However, the new introduction of H5N1 into countries west of China allowed the direction to be addressed, and that direction is clearly from wild birds to domestic poultry, as seen by the multiple outbreaks involving multiple sub-clades which have never been reported in domestic poultry anywhere in the world.

The evidence is overwhelming, so the fairy tale focuses on the negatives in healthy birds (ignoring the positives), and ignoring the fact that H5N1 is a VECTOR that goes from bird to bird, species to species, and flyway to flyway.

[Coleman]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

I would like to know, whether it would be possible to trace back on which kind of farm the reassortment of the "ancestors" of HP H5N1 has taken place? On a Integrateted fishfarm with quail cages above and gooses in the pond (which european fancy breeder and birder doesn't want to believe) - or in largescale factories???

http://www.jncc.gov.uk/PDF/pub07_waterbirds_part4.2.4.pdf

In fact we know, that HPAI in H5/H7 strain can emerge within short time from LPAI within a chicken/turkey poultry farm, as several studies shows. And finally all fatal human cases happend after contact to domestic poultry not wild birds.
Is there any overview whether the cases happend more under "fancy" poultry keepers and family members in Asia or - were poultry workers more likely to be affected up till now?
Sorry questioning a little OT.

Are half-domesticated bar-headed gooses the possible link to the world wide spread from H5N1?

[HenryN]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

I would like to know, whether it would be possible to trace back on which kind of farm the reassortment of the "ancestors" of HP H5N1 has taken place? On a Integrateted fishfarm with quail cages above and gooses in the pond (which european fancy breeder and birder doesn't want to believe) - or in largescale factories???

http://www.jncc.gov.uk/PDF/pub07_waterbirds_part4.2.4.pdf

In fact we know, that HPAI in H5/H7 strain can emerge within short time from LPAI within a chicken/turkey poultry farm, as several studies shows. And finally all fatal human cases happend after contact to domestic poultry not wild birds.
Is there any overview whether the cases happend more under "fancy" poultry keepers and family members in Asia or - were poultry workers more likely to be affected up till now?
Sorry questioning a little OT.

Are half-domesticated bar-headed gooses the possible link to the world wide spread from H5N1?

The 1997 version of H5N1 is quite rare now. The H5N1 widely circulating doesn't have H9N2 genes.

[Coleman]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

But finally it helps to understand the possible emerging process of HPAI (I know that there isn't just one "patient zero", like we know it acc. HIV too, today we should know that the process is/was more complex ...)
And how does emerge the progenitor of the european strains? Is this possible to trace back to integrated fish farms (maybe with half domesticated bar headed gooses as link to wild birds?)/ large scale farms in Asia??

[HenryN]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

The Qinghai strain was first reported at Qinghai Lake in May, 2005. There are no reports at fish farms.

[Coleman]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

Isn't it unusual to keep there fish together with birds?
I don't think so ...
The Quinghai Lake is well known for its fish industry as well as its half domesticated water birds.
I simply claim, that You can imagine this in this way ...


And a closer view to the integrated chicken factory farm in the background.

Source: http://www.fao.org/AG/AGAINFO/subjec...LU_english.pdf

[HenryN]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

Isn't it unusual to keep there fish together with birds?
I don't think so ...
The Quinghai Lake is well known for its fish industry as well as its half domesticated water birds.
I simply claim, that You can imagine this in this way ...


And a closer view to the integrated chicken factory farm in the background.

Source: http://www.fao.org/AG/AGAINFO/subjec...LU_english.pdf

Lots of imagination on H5N1, but no reports.

The Qinghai H5N1 DATA in Europe, Middle East, and Africa are VERY clear.

[Coleman]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

No reports for what?

[HenryN]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

No reports for what?

H5N1 in birds on fish farm or H5N1 fish sequences.

Pictures of ducks and fish are like pictures of roads and railways.

The story is in the sequence. Qinghai sequences go back to Jiangxi wild birds or early isolates from Japan / South Korea. There are many cross currents for H5N1 in Asia (H5N1 was first detected in 1996).

However, after May, 2005, H5N1 began to be reported in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia (for the first time), followed by 50 countries west of China (for the first time). ALL were the Qinghai strain and MANY countries had H5N1 in wild birds but not in domestic poultry.

Pictures are for postcards.

[Coleman]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

But finally You can't expect, that every case was reported not to mention tested, especially in China, even here in Germany i'm sure that not every case will be reported. The most people are digging the birds to keep the problems away.

I thought rather to reports reg. poultry and humans at Qinghai lake.

http://www.birdflumanual.com/articles/birdFluHankyPanky.asp

Finally You can consider even the half domesticated bar headed gooses as farm poultry.
Are there really no reports? ... Are they all wrong?

[HenryN]

Re: Ecologic Immunology of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds

But finally You can't expect, that every case was reported not to mention tested, especially in China, even here in Germany i'm sure that not every case will be reported. The most people are digging the birds to keep the problems away.

I thought rather to reports reg. poultry and humans at Qinghai lake.

http://www.birdflumanual.com/articles/birdFluHankyPanky.asp

Finally You can consider even the half domesticated bar headed gooses as farm poultry.
Are there really no reports? ... Are they all wrong?

There are H5N1 sequences from Qinghai in 2005 and 2006. All are from wild birds.