FRANCE: LOW PATHOGENIC AVIAN INFLUENZA IN POULTRY, SUSPECTED (RSOE EDIS, March 22, 2009)

[Giuseppe]

FRANCE: LOW PATHOGENIC AVIAN INFLUENZA IN POULTRY, SUSPECTED (RSOE EDIS, March 22, 2009)

France has reported an outbreak of H5N1 LPAI in decoy ducks on a premises in Calvados and a second outbreak of H5 (not N1) in decoy ducks in Pas-de Calais.

The site in Calvados contains 45 ducks in two aviaries, covered with fencing and kept by one hunter.

Two of ten ducks tested positive for H5N1 LPAI.

The second premises in Pas-de-Calais contained 563 ducks in 32 adjacent aviaries owned by a hunter cooperative.

During routine surveillance, 5 ducks each from 3 of the 32 aviaries were tested for avian influenza.

Two ducks from one aviary were positive, while the other ten ducks from the two aviaries were negative.

Both the infected premises have been placed under surveillance and biosecurity has been increased, but other disease controls have not been applied and the affected birds were not culled (European Commission 2009).)
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http://visz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?cid=20972&lang=eng
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[Giuseppe]

Re: FRANCE: LOW PATHOGENIC AVIAN INFLUENZA IN POULTRY, SUSPECTED (RSOE EDIS, March 22, 2009)

Global Animal Health, Food and Farming Group - Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 in France (3/19/2009)

Veterinary Science Team - Global Animal Health ? International Disease Monitoring

Preliminary Outbreak Assessment
Reference: VITT/LPAI - France
Date: 19 March 2009


Global Animal Health, Food and Farming Group - Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 in France

[See original PDF document at LINK. EDITED.]

Note: Defra?s Global Animal Health (GAH) monitors outbreaks of high impact diseases around the world. Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza (LPAI) is among those diseases of major concern.


1 Disease Report

France has reported an outbreak of H5N1 LPAI in decoy ducks on a premises in Calvados and a second outbreak of H5 (not N1) in decoy ducks in Pas-de Calais (see Map). The site in Calvados contains 45 ducks in two aviaries, covered with fencing and kept by one hunter. Two of ten ducks tested positive for H5N1 LPAI. The second premises in Pas-de-Calais contained 563 ducks in 32 adjacent aviaries owned by a hunter cooperative. During routine surveillance, 5 ducks each from 3 of the 32 aviaries were tested for avian influenza.

Two ducks from one aviary were positive, while the other ten ducks from the two aviaries were negative. Both the infected premises have been placed under surveillance and biosecurity has been increased, but other disease controls have not been applied and the affected birds were not culled (European Commission 2009).


2 Situation Assessment

Decoy ducks are used as captive birds to lure wild birds to a shooting area for hunting. They are kept tethered when they are taken out to water and have little direct contact with wild birds. The French authorities will continue to conduct surveillance for the time being. As there are no commercial poultry premises within a 1 km radius of the two premises, no restriction zones have been imposed.

According to EU rules, immediate culling of birds infected with LPAI is not required but they must be kept under restrictions.

There have been previous reports of LPAI H5N1 being detected in wild birds in Italy and France.

Laboratory tests of these viruses suggested there was no relation to Asian HPAI H5N1 strains (Defra, 2008). There may be some limited wild bird movements between North France and South East England at this time of year.

According to TRACES (EU Electronic Trade Notification System) there have been 28 consignments of live poultry including one consignment of commercial ducks since 1 February (see Map). The consignments were all from premises at least 50 km away.

There have been no consignments of hatching eggs in the same period from France to the UK since 1 February.


3 Conclusions

At present, we consider that this event would pose a negligible likelihood of introducing either LPAI or HPAI into the UK through legal trade.

We consider that this event does not significantly alter the continual low risk of any avian influenza virus being introduced into the UK by wild birds.

We will continue to monitor the situation.


4 References

Defra (2008) Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in Switzerland. http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/monitoring/pdf/ai-switzerland.pdf. Accessed 18/03/2009
European Commission (2009) France ? low pathogenic avian influenza of the H5 subtype in decoy birds. Received by fax, 17/03/2009.
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