BIRD FLU: VIRUS NEAR GROSSETO, (Italy) HUNDREDS OF WILD DUCKS CULLED

[MHSC]

BIRD FLU: VIRUS NEAR GROSSETO, HUNDREDS OF WILD DUCKS CULLED

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?d...-CRO-0-NF11&page=0&id=agionline-eng.oggitalia

(AGI) - Grosseto, Nov. 1 - After the discovery of avian influenza yesterday in the Grosseto area, hundreds of animals will be put down. Late yesterday evening, the Health Ministry asked the National Avian Influenza Centre for its advice concerning the whether the ministerial decree DM 22/9/2000 should be urgently applied regarding the wild duck breeding grounds on which bird flu has been found, with the H5 strain and of the N type, still a phase of definition, but having ruled out that it is the "N1", the most contagious.

The ministerial decree referred to provides for the culling of all the animals on the farm. The Health Ministry made the decision along with the Tuscany regional government and the healthcare body of Grosseto on the way to go about the matter in this specific case, and supplied instructions for the culling itself.

In addition to the putting down of the wild ducks, the ministerial orders provide for other measures to limit the likelihood of the spread of the virus, which consist mostly in the establishing of a surveillance zone with a kilometre radius around the farm in question, surveillance which will begin immediately after the ordinance by the mayor of Grosseto and which will last for three weeks after the culling.

In the zone the entire bird population will once again be checked, even birds intended for use by single families, as was done previously, since the entire area is inside or very close to a humid zone used by migratory birds. For the period in question, all the animals checked are to be considered under seizure and will have to be kept on the farms, prohibited from coming in or going out, including both the birds themselves and their products, meaning eggs and chicks.

All farms in rural zones will be kept under constant surveillance by the veterinary service of the local healthcare authority. The culling of the farm-bred wild ducks will be carried out within a few days by a specialized firm, and the bodies will be destroyed and buried on the land where they are found after having their bodies disinfected. The owners of the animals culled will be reimbursed for the market value of the animals, established by an ad hoc committee provided for by law in the case of forced culling. (AGI) .

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: BIRD FLU: VIRUS NEAR GROSSETO, (Italy) HUNDREDS OF WILD DUCKS CULLED

Last winter AI hit Europe between february and may.

Now it is coming in now already, real early in the season... do not like that...

 

[HenryN]

Re: BIRD FLU: VIRUS NEAR GROSSETO, (Italy) HUNDREDS OF WILD DUCKS CULLED

Last winter AI hit Europe between february and may.

Now it is coming in now already, real early in the season... do not like that...

AI was REPORTED between febraury and may (H5N1 doesn't read media reports and was in Europe long before february).

 

[yielddude]

Re: BIRD FLU: VIRUS NEAR GROSSETO, (Italy) HUNDREDS OF WILD DUCKS CULLED

Virus found in Tuscan mallard farm not dangerous
(ANSA) - Rome, November 1 - The discovery of bird flu in a mallard farm in Tuscany does not mean Italy runs any serious risk of an outbreak of the disease or a pandemic, according to University of Bologna virologist Mauro Delogu .

"Cases like this one are normal. This is a very weak form of bird flu and is probably an H5 or H7 strain, which is common among wild birds and sometimes can infect domestic animals," he said .

Because of this weakness, Delogu explained "this virus will not spread to humans. Nevertheless, it is best to take precautions to avoid it infecting big farms and causing economic damage" .

Although it is likely that again this year there will be cases of the dangerous H5N1 strain of avian influenza in Italy and other parts of Europe, they will be limited, the virologist predicted .

This because "the migration of wild birds has been in progress for over a month now and there have been very few reported cases of 'real' bird flu, compared to the same period last year, and none in Italy," Delogu said .

"This would appear to indicate that a certain percentage of birds infected last year have built up an immunity capable slowing down the progress of the H5N1 virus," he added .

The situation remains dangerous in Asia, Delogu said, "where there has been confirmation of the first mutations of the H5N1 virus" .

The mild form of bird flu was discovered in the coastal Tuscan area of Maremma. Local health officials have already ordered the culling of all 10,000 of the wild ducks .

In September, a leading expert at the Health Ministry said that while there is no need to alarm or frighten the public, people should not lower their guards against the threat of a bird flu pandemic .

"The approach to a possible bird flu pandemic has until now gone from making catastrophic predictions to totally ignoring it," observed Professor Pietro Crovari, a member of the Health Ministry's bird flu task force .

"While paying so much attention to a theoretical risk may appear to be excessive at a time of so many budget cuts, it is important to prepare ahead of time for a new virus because when and if it does come our time and options will be limited," he added .

A bird flu panic swept Italy last winter and almost crippled the poultry market. Hundreds of chickens were slaughtered and consumers stopped buying poultry .

Scores of birds were found to have died in Europe from avian influenza but no humans contracted the disease .

Since 2003 there have been 247 confirmed cases of bird flu among humans and 144 deaths, most in East Asia .

In all these cases the virus was passed directly from the birds .

However, the greatest risk is that the H5N1 virus will mutate and be able to pass from human to human, thus setting the stage for a pandemic of unknown proportions .

The Spanish pandemic of 1918-19 is believed to have been caused by a mutation of bird flu and killed between 20 to 40 million people worldwide .

http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2006-11-01_1014170.html

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: BIRD FLU: VIRUS NEAR GROSSETO, (Italy) HUNDREDS OF WILD DUCKS CULLED

VIRUS GERMANS IN AREA OF GROSSETO: MINSALUTE, NOT AVIARY

(AGI) - Rome, Nov. 1 - 'The virus that infected some specimens of germans in a breeding farm in the province of Grosseto is not the one that cause the aviary flu, i.e. H5N1, but another type of virus, typical of birds, of a different nature and at low level of risk.

There is no possibility that it may be contagious for man in case of contact with the infected animal. The killing of germans is not motivated by risks for men but is due to the possibility that it may spread to other breeding farms.

It is wrong to talk about aviary infection if we intend by this definition the disease of chicken and other birds provoked by the H5N1 virus that created in the past a great amount of alarm in the public opinion because it spread to some people who had come in contact with infected animals in conditions of scarce medical hygiene, especially in south-east Asia.'

It was reported by the Health ministry in a statement, with reference to the news regarding the identification of birds infected by the animal virus in a breeding farm in the province of Grosseto0.

Regarding the H5N1 virus - continues the statement - it is useful to remember that I no parts of the the world there has been a man-to-man transmission and that the animal-to-man transmission can happen only after repeated and promiscuous contacts with the infected animal and never byh alimentary ways. In Italy no cases of H5N1 have been registered at the moment.

Last year, even if some wild swans had been infected, this did not imply any species contained in breeding farms, according to the sanitary controls carried out all over Italy.

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?d...RO-0-NF82&page=0&id=agionline-eng.italyonline

Comment:

It seems ducks, species called "german ducks", from a commercial farm were contaminated by avian flu, low path strain? Still it was/is avian flu on a farm, so according to the regulations of the European Union preventive measures were taken: culling of all domestic birds in a 1 km radius zone, etc.

 

[Niko]

Re: BIRD FLU: VIRUS NEAR GROSSETO, (Italy) HUNDREDS OF WILD DUCKS CULLED

These factual errors may be the fault or the reporter or something in the translation...

Since 2003 there have been 247 confirmed cases of bird flu among humans and 144 deaths, most in East Asia .

In all these cases the virus was passed directly from the birds .

and

It was reported by the Health ministry in a statement, with reference to the news regarding the identification of birds infected by the animal virus in a breeding farm in the province of Grosseto0.

Regarding the H5N1 virus - continues the statement - it is useful to remember that I no parts of the the world there has been a man-to-man transmission and that the animal-to-man transmission can happen only after repeated and promiscuous contacts with the infected animal and never byh alimentary ways. In Italy no cases of H5N1 have been registered at the moment.

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: BIRD FLU: VIRUS NEAR GROSSETO, (Italy) HUNDREDS OF WILD DUCKS CULLED

First time AI (low path) hits domestic fowl in Italy

Machine translated, (thanks Frenchie Girl for the link):

Grosseto: it is time of migrations and it returns the fear of stock H5N1.

The analyses: little virulento the virus of the avian one it arrives in Tuscany Contagio in a breeding, will be pulled down 10,500 real germaniums

GROSSETO - the virus of the avian infuence it has been characterized in a breeding of germaniums to Principina to Earth, heart of the Fen, to the borders with the natural Park of the Uccellina, one of the humid zones more important of Europe. And' the first case in Italy after the summery pause.

In the February of this year they had been the swans infects in Sicily, Puglia and Calabria. In Umbria, always in February, it had been hit a real germano like that one characterized yesterday in Fen.


STOCK - Also in this case however the virus it does not belong more to the stock virulento, the ill-famed H5N1, that it can change and the animals all over the world to be transmitted to the man (the 256 contagiati and 151 dead men).

The maremmana infection is to low pathogenic potentiality even if the period (the great migration of beginning winter) and the places (the park and the humid zone) does not render optimists.

Here because nearly sure all the 8,500 germaniums of the breeding where it has been found virus and the others 2mila flown them, anch' they in the same area, will be pulled down. ?We are waiting for the permission from the ministry, mail to seem favorable is much probable one?, confirmation Paul Madrucci, director of the department prevention of the Asl of Grosseto.

It seems excluded the hypothesis, advanced from some experts instead, to create a security zone around to the area of the contagio in which it would have to be proceeded to the discouragement of the present flown ones them.

The germaniums find to you sieropositi have been 20 on a champion of 40 and to presumablly it infects it to you are hundred, if not migliaia. Nobody of the flown ones them but ?morto. ?And' the confirmation that the virus is to low patogenit??, says the technicians. The infection would have been transmitted in little days.

The last survey, carried out twenty or so days ago, had not characterized exemplary sieropositi to you. Probably the virus it has arrived with the first migratory germaniums that in these days are stopped in the park and the zone of the breeding.

ANALYSIS - the alarm is released the slid week after the withdrawals of money and the analyses carried out from the veterinaries of the Asl of Grosseto.

The confirmation then has arrived from the laboratories of the Tuscany Region to Florence and from the zooprofilattico Institute of Padova, national center of reference for the avian one. In province of Grosseto there are 14 great breedings of flown them and 300 small breedings.

Aprimavera a germano lookout, that is an sensitive to the virus and used animal like guinea-pig, had been found positive in the lagoon of Orbetello. Never but, till now, the virus it had hit the breedings.

Mark Gasperetti

http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/11_Novembre/01/gasperetti.shtml

http://translate.google.com/translate_t

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: BIRD FLU: VIRUS NEAR GROSSETO, (Italy) HUNDREDS OF WILD DUCKS CULLED

AI was REPORTED between febraury and may (H5N1 doesn't read media reports and was in Europe long before february).

From an October 26, 2005 article in http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1753925,00.html

Since late last week Croatian health authorities have detected two pockets of avian influenza among swans found dead in the country's rural northeast

.

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: BIRD FLU: VIRUS NEAR GROSSETO, (Italy) HUNDREDS OF WILD DUCKS CULLED

Italy says flu in wild ducks is not deadly H5N1

MILAN (Reuters) - An outbreak of avian influenza among wild ducks in Italy is not deadly H5N1 strain and does not present any risk for humans, Italy's health authorities said.

Avian flu primarily hits birds but the H5N1 virus has killed 152 people around the world since it re-emerged in Asia in 2003.

Italy's health ministry said a bird flu virus which had been discovered in some wild ducks at a farm in the province of Grosseto in Tuscany had nothing to do with the H5N1 strain.

"There is no possibility of humans being infected even if in contact with infected animals," the ministry said in a statement late on Wednesday.

However, the ministry has ordered a cull of about 8,000 wild ducks at the farm in order to prevent the spread of the virus to other birds in the area and would carry out checks at other farms nearby.

Poultry sales in Italy fell as much as 70 percent in February after the H5N1 virus was detected in wild swans there.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/art...731144_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-ITALY.xml&src=rss

Comment: "Wild ducks", a.k.a. "German Ducks" are domesticated ducks or mallards. In this region are several farms with mallards. The migrating wild ducks can mingle with the domesticated ones.