Hungary - Bird flu in geese

[yielddude]

Bird flu suspected in southern Hungary
22 Jan 2007 18:48:33 GMT
Source: Reuters
More BUDAPEST, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Five geese found dead in southeastern Hungary are being tested for suspected bird flu, an Agriculture Ministry official said on Monday.

The dead birds are being tested in Budapest and come from a large farm in the southeastern county of Csongrad where about 40 geese had fallen sick and some had died, Farming Ministry Secretary of State Fulop Benedek told national news agency MTI.

Veterinarians who saw the birds said the suspicion of bird flu was justified.

Hungarian authorities set up a protected zone around the farm and informed all international organisations concerned, Benedek said.

Hungary culled a million birds after the highly infectious H5N1 strain of bird flu was contracted by domestic poultry last year.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22916517.htm

 

[HenryN]

Re: Bird flu suspected in southern Hungary

Re: Bird flu suspected in southern Hungary

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01220702/H5N1_Hungary.html

 

[hawkeye]

Re: Bird flu suspected in southern Hungary

Re: Bird flu suspected in southern Hungary

I wonder if Russia will still allow the imports?

Hungarian poultry free to go to Russia again
Thursday, 4, January 2007 05:11:00 PM
Russia has lifted its ban on Hungarian poultry from January, which will allow Hungarian firms to sell several 100 million forints of poultry to Russia in the coming months, the Hungarian Poultry Product Council said.

Russia, which imposed the ban in June after the H5N1 strain of avian influenza hit Hungary's poultry, partially lifted it in October but kept it for some Hungarian counties including the most important poultry producing regions.

In a normal year, Hungary sells HUF 1.2-1.5 billion of poultry to Russia, but sales plunged to less than half those levels in 2006, László Bárány, chairman of the poultry product council told Thursday's issue of business daily Világgazdaság.

Hungary sold less poultry products to other key markets, e.g. Germany, after one million birds were culled following the outbreak of bird flu, which hit the duck and goose breeding region of Bács-Kiskun hardest, the paper added.

//==

Hungary succeeding in bird flu battle, claims expert

10/01/2007 - Following the discovery last year of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza in some of Hungary’s poultry stock, processors are finally on the road to recovery, an industry expert has claimed.

Peter Foldi, secretary of the Hungarian Poultry Producers' Council told CEE-Foodindustry.com that the industry was beginning to win the battle against the disease, as the market looks to recover its share of revenue lost of food safety concerns.

The disease which was discovered in a number of free range farms within the south of the country, caused consumers in both domestic and international markets to turn away from poultry sourced within the country.

Despite a wide scale cull of birds including geese and ducks by the Hungarian authorities in the affected regions like the breeding grounds of Bács-Kiskun, Foldi believes that more significant damage was caused by “unfavourable media coverage” of the disease.

The resulting concerns amongst consumers over food safety resulted in a large fall in demand, which according to Foldi caused as much as a 20 per cent decline in the price of many poultry products.

It also lost a large amount of business to major markets like Germany, a major buyer of duck products.

To protect its poultry, further measures have as a result been put in place to prevent any further outbreaks.

“We are developing new technologies to protect free range farms and other risk areas in the country as well as our interests”, said Foldi.

These technologies were also backed by EU approved prevention and control measures present in all member states affected by the H5N1 virus. The measures restrict movement of all birds in domestic areas, as well as increased surveillance of all wild and domestic birds.

The comments follow the announcement last week that Russia had completely lifted a ban imposed on all poultry products.

Though Foldi admits that Russia for some time “has not been a significant market for Hungarian poultry products,” he added that it was a sign of improving fortunes for the industry.

According to the Poultry Producers' Council before 2006, Hungarian exports to Russia accounted for around €5m - €6m in annual revenue for poultry processors in the country.

With Russia having now removed its ban on poultry, and new safeguards being put in place to protect its birds, Foldi is confident the situation for processors was clearly improving.

Quite simply he said, “We think 2007 will be a much better year for Hungarian poultry.”

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Bird flu suspected in southern Hungary

Re: Bird flu suspected in southern Hungary

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01220702/H5N1_Hungary.html

Commentary

Suspect H5N1 in Geese in Hungary
Recombinomics Commentary
January 22, 2007

Five geese found dead in southeastern Hungary are being tested for suspected bird flu, an Agriculture Ministry official said on Monday.

The dead birds are being tested in Budapest and come from a large farm in the southeastern county of Csongrad where about 40 geese had fallen sick and some had died, Farming Ministry Secretary of State Fulop Benedek told national news agency MTI.

Veterinarians who saw the birds said the suspicion of bird flu was justified.

The above comments suggest H5N1 may have been detected in southern Hungary. Although H5N1 has been reported in the Ukraine this season, other countries in Europe have failed to detect or report bird flu for about 12 months. Last season many countries in Europe reported H5N1 in late January and throughout February. This season most of the reports have been out of Africa, in Egypt, Sudan, and Nigeria.

The recent outbreak in Egypt has resulted in the death of all five confirmed cases this season, and the two sequences from the Gharbiya cluster had the Tamiflu resistance marker, N294S. The failure to find wild type sequences fro this position strongly suggests the polymorphism was in the H5N1 prior to the start of Tamiflu treatment. Moreover, N294S has also been identified in H5N1 in ducks in China. The acquisition of N294S appears likely. The HA sequences from these patients had a receptor binding site change, V223I, which was detected previously in H5N1 from geese in Shantou. The Gharbiya NA sequence also had a new change, M107I. This polymorphism was in the same Shantou geese that had the V223I change in HA. The presence of two newly acquired polymorphism in two genes that match a common source strongly supports acquisition of these polymorphisms by recombination.

Such acquisitions are cause for concern. In addition to the N294S polymorphisms in ducks in H5N1 infected ducks in China, the common Tamiflu resistance marker, H274Y, has been detected in Qinghai isolates in Astrakhan (A/swan/Astrakhan/1/2005(H5N1) and A/swan/Astrakhan/Russia/Nov-2/2005(H5N1), raising the possibility of more Tamiflu resistance in the region linked to Qinghai H5N1 infections.

.

 

[Carter]

Re: Bird flu suspected in southern Hungary

Re: Bird flu suspected in southern Hungary

Hat -tip to Dutchie.


Hungary suspects bird flu outbreak
The Raw Story/DPA - Published: Monday January 22, 2007

Budapest- Hungarian authorities on Monday tested five dead
geese suspected of having bird flu, an Agricultural Ministry official
said.
The dead birds were discovered on a geese farm in Csongrad County
in south-east Hungary, Fulop Benedek told MTI news agency.

Around 40 of the farm's 3,300 geese became sick over the weekend
before some of the animals died, he said.

A protective zone was set up around the farm while the birds were
being tested.

Hungary last year culled hundreds of thousands of birds after bird
flu broke out in multiple locations across the country.

All of the protective zones set up at the time, were cancelled
when no further cases were uncovered.

Benedek said more information would be made available on Tuesday.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Hungary_suspects_bird_flu_outbreak_01222007.html

 

[hawkeye]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

Long article covering the usual info...however this bit was specific to Hungary

Farmers must cooperate to stamp out bird flu


23 Jan 2007
bbj.hu
The UN' Food and Agriculture Organization urged poultry farmers to cooperate with local authorities to stamp out bird flu as the virus spreads in Asia, saying many outbreaks probably go unreported. Hungarian authorities are investigating a suspected outbreak.

Bans on raising birds in backyards, such as the one being rolled out in Indonesia, may lead to illegal poultry production, the Rome-based FAO said today in a statement. Instead of banning production, farmers should be encouraged to vaccinate day-old chicks and take other virus control measures, FAO said. Fresh outbreaks in Japan, Thailand and Vietnam raise the concern of international disease trackers who are monitoring the virus in the event it spawns a global pandemic. The H5N1 avian flu strain may spread further as the weather gets colder in Europe and nations including China prepare to slaughter fowl for lunar New Year celebrations next month, FAO said. ?It is crucial that countries themselves step up their surveillance, detection and rapid response measures,? Juan Lubroth, senior officer at the FAO's animal health agency, said in the statement. ?Farmers should be encouraged to participate in virus control and vaccination...

 

[HenryN]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD>Culling of bird flu suspect fowl begins in SE Hungary
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0 valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2 height=12></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Budapest, January 23 (MTI) - The culling of fowl began on Tuesday at a farm where birds suspected of having bird flu have been reported, MTI's on-site correspondent said on Tuesday.</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>

The culling of nearly 3,300 geese was ordered on a farm by Lapisto, 13 kilometres of the south-eastern Hungarian town of Szentes, after 40 of the animals were found to show symptoms of bird flu.

Veterinary authorities have begun checking birds on nearby farms in a 10-kilometre quarantine zone where owners have been ordered to keep all fowl indoors. Locals said a large number of wild ducks has flown through the area and had spent time at a nearby stream.

Some of the dead birds are being tested in a Budapest diagnostics laboratory and EU authorities have been notified, chief veterinary officer Miklos Suth told the press earlier on Tuesday.

http://english.mti.hu/default.asp?menu=1&theme=2&cat=25&newsid=234018
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

[yielddude]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires

01-24-07 1106ET

Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

DJ EU Will Meet Friday To Discuss Hungary Bird Flu Measures


BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--Veterinary experts from the European Union will discuss Friday what safety measures to impose on Hungary following a reported outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in the country.


(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires

01-24-07 1109ET

Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

 

[HenryN]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

Hungarian labs detect presence of H5N1 strain of bird flu
The Associated Press

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

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<!-- skyscraper end -->BUDAPEST, Hungary Hungarian laboratories have detected the presence of the deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu virus, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday.

"Bird flu tests have shown a high pathogenic H5 type, which looking at previous test results, belongs to the deadly N1 strain," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it would send samples to the official European Union lab at Weybridge, England for further tests.
Hungary has also notified EU officials about Wednesday's test results.

Earlier this week, some 30-40 geese — discovered on a farm in southeastern Hungary dead or showing signs of damaged nervous systems — were suspected of having been infected by the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.
By Tuesday, the farm's 3,300 birds were culled.

The ministry said normal preventive measures to avoid the spread of the disease were in place. Further measures will not be taken and additional culling is unnecessary, the statement said.

Hungary's first case of H5N1, detected in February 2006, was found to be carried by wild birds including swans and gray geese, while the deadly virus was first found in domestic poultry in June.

 

[yielddude]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

DJ EU Will Meet Fri To Discuss Hungary Bird Flu Measures -2-



Hungarian authorities Wednesday detected the H5N1 virus in geese in the southeast of the country. Budapest imposed emergency security measures, restricting the movement of birds, ordering poultry indoors and stopping poultry meat exports.

E.U. experts meeting in Brussels Friday will assess and likely endorse these measures, the European Commission said in a statement.

This is the first incidence of highly pathogenic bird flu in the E.U. since August 2006, when one case occurred in Dresden zoo in Germany.

Since 2003, the H5N1 bird flu strain has killed at least 163 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Experts fear it could mutate into a form that becomes easily passed among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.

-By Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck, Dow Jones Newswires; +32-2-741-1487; juliane.vonreppert@dowjones.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-24-07 1125ET

Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

http://www.amtddj.inlumen.com/bin/djstory?StoryId=CrBBN0aebqLqWmdu2nZK

 

[hawkeye]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

probably threaten to kick them out of the EU over it. j/k

 

[HenryN]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01240701/H5N1_Hungary_Confirmed.html

 

[Dark Horse]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01240701/H5N1_Hungary_Confirmed.html

Do you suppose this is another opportunity for last year's jilted porcine bride? Or has she moved on?

 

[Niko]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

Avian flu crops up in Europe again

Jan 24, 2007 (CIDRAP News) ? Hungary today announced an H5N1 avian influenza outbreak at a goose farm, signaling the first appearance of the disease in Europe this winter.


A European Union (EU) statement said Hungarian authorities notified the EU of an H5N1 avian flu outbreak in Csongrad County in southeastern Hungary, Reuters reported today. The EU said veterinarians tested some geese after several deaths were reported in a 3,000-bird flock; the remaining geese were culled.

Hungarian veterinary officials told Bloomberg News today they will send samples tomorrow to an EU lab in the United Kingdom to confirm the results.

Appearing on public television today, chief veterinarian Miklos Suth said a surveillance zone was set up around the farm, which is in an isolated location, making spread of the disease unlikely, Bloomberg reported.

Hungary's first H5N1 outbreaks involved a handful of mute swans in B?cs-Kiskun County in the south-central region in April 2006, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The following June, the disease was detected on several goose farms in the same county.

Twenty-six nations in Europe reported their first H5N1 outbreaks in wild birds or poultry in late 2005 and early 2006, according to Bloomberg. The last previous outbreak in Europe occurred in Germany last August, according to information published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/jan2407hungary.html

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01240701/H5N1_Hungary_Confirmed.html

Commentary

Qinghai H5N1 Confirmed in Hungary
Recombinomics Commentary
January 24, 2007

Hungarian laboratories have detected the presence of the deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu virus, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday.

"Bird flu tests have shown a high pathogenic H5 type, which looking at previous test results, belongs to the deadly N1 strain," the ministry said in a statement.

The above comments suggest that the determination of the H5 serotype included sequencing of the HA cleavage site, and finding the common GERRRKKR sequence signaling the Qinghai strain of H5N1. Thus, although the serotype of the N1 has not been determined, the H5 sequence leaves little doubt that the H5 bird flu is the highly pathogenic Qinghai strain.

The detection of H5N1 in Europe this season is not a surprise. Qinghai H5N1 was widely reported last year in late January and throughout February. More H5N1 reports from Europe are expected.

The Qinghai strain is transmitted and transported by migratory birds. Interactions between the dead ducks and wild ducks in Hungary had been noted. Most initial fatal H5N1 infections will involve wild birds.

The failure of any European country to report recent H5N1 in wild birds is cause for concern. The surveillance in these countries is fatally flawed, and like many of the countries in the Middle East and Africa, the Qinghai strain is only detected / reported when domestic poultry dies.

Samples from the dead geese are being sent to the WHO affiliated Weybridge lab in London. Many countries in Europe sent samples for testing last year to Weybridge and widespread infections were confirmed. However, these sequences are still being hoarded in the WHO private database at Los Alamos. In several instances, this hoarding has been in place for well over one year since H5N1 confirmation.

The hoarding of H5N1 sequences, coupled with failure to detect or report H5N1 in Europe and the Middle East, remain scandalous.

The recent detection of the Tamiflu resistance, N294S, NA polymorphism in the fatal cases in the Gharbiya cluster strongly suggests that the polymorphism is in wild and domestic birds in the region.

The failure to report the bird infections in Europe and the Middle East and/or release the sequences, is hazardous to the world?s health.


.

 

[HenryN]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

Do you suppose this is another opportunity for last year's jilted porcine bride? Or has she moved on?

I'm sure the H1N1 swine are still in Europe. Its really a matter of the concentration of H5N1, as well as the selection advantages for G228S. Since position 228 in influenza B is G, there may not be much pressure to chnage to S.

 

[Dark Horse]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

I'm sure the H1N1 swine are still in Europe. Its really a matter of the concentration of H5N1, as well as the selection advantages for G228S. Since position 228 in influenza B is G, there may not be much pressure to chnage to S.

Thank you, Dr. Niman. I'll stop dreaming about her for now.

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

Hungary tests more geese for bird flu

29 Jan 2007 10:07:24 GMT

BUDAPEST, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Hungary has found more suspected bird flu cases among geese near a farm where the highly pathogenic strain of the virus was confirmed last week, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday.

"Due to the strong suspicion of bird flu it was necessary to order the culling of 9,400 geese on the morning of January 27," the ministry said in a statement.

The village of Derekegyhaz where the sick geese were found is in the southeastern Csongrad county, close to the area where authorities culled 3,300 geese last week.

Several countries have imposed import bans on Hungarian poultry after the bird flu outbreak, the first in the European Union this year.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29137160.htm

 

[Niko]

Re: Hungary - Bird flu in geese

Bird Flu Confirmed in Hungary; Virus Spreads in Japan (Update2)

By Jennifer M. Freedman and Karima Anjani


Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Geese in Hungary tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, marking the first confirmed infection in the European Union since August. Japan found a third outbreak of avian influenza on a poultry farm.

Authorities found the H5N1 avian influenza strain in two separate flocks of geese in Hungary, European Commission spokesman Philip Tod said today. Japan's agriculture ministry reported an H5 virus in chickens in the western prefecture of Okayama, after H5N1 outbreaks on the southern island of Kyushu.

Countries in Europe, Asia and Africa reported fresh outbreaks of the H5N1 virus starting in November, after going months without finding infections. Egypt and Indonesia later found seven human cases, six of whom died.

There are no signs that the virus is evolving to become more easily spread among people, a World Health Organization official in Indonesia said.

``There haven't been changes and that's good news,'' Georg Petersen, the WHO's country representative in Indonesia, said in an interview on Jan. 25. Indonesia has reported more H5N1 fatalities than any other country, with 63 confirmed by WHO.

The WHO is tracking the virus in case it becomes more infectious among people, possibly leading to a pandemic like the 1918 outbreak that killed as many as 50 million people worldwide. At least 164 of the 270 people known to be infected with bird flu since 2003 have died, including a six-year-old Indonesian girl in Central Java Province, the Geneva-based WHO said today.

High Risk

The European Union hasn't had any human cases. The last reported avian infection in Europe was a wild bird found in Germany in August, according to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.

Tod said the EU is ``in a period of high risk,'' adding that the bloc's 27 members have been asked to be particularly vigilant for signs of bird flu.
Hungary is investigating an outbreak among geese at a farm in the southern town of Derekegyhaza, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the site of the initial outbreak. Authorities ordered all 9,400 geese to be slaughtered Jan. 27 after some of the fowl began showing symptoms associated with avian flu, Hungary's Agriculture Ministry said in an e-mailed statement.

``There's a big lake nearby, and some wild ducks were there to enjoy the incredibly mild winter weather,'' ministry spokesman Andras Dekany said in a telephone interview. ``They spread the virus through their feces.''
Infections in Asia

Governments across Asia are intensifying surveillance for H5N1 after the virus resurfaced in domestic poultry and wild fowl in South Korea, Thailand, China and Vietnam in the past few weeks. Hong Kong's government today confirmed that two more birds found earlier this month carried the H5N1 virus, adding to the three already discovered in the city.

Demand for poultry products has dropped by as much as 50 percent in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, following the local government's ban on raising backyard flocks, effective Feb. 1. The Rome-based FAO today encouraged Indonesians to continue eating poultry, saying that the meat is safe as long as hygiene procedures are followed.

``Controlling highly pathogenic avian influenza is difficult enough, without having to deal with the economic consequences of a market collapse, which affects the livelihoods of so many people,'' Anni McLeod, senior officer for livestock policy, said in the FAO statement.

Companies and countries are preparing for an outbreak of pandemic flu with medicines and vaccines. GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Europe's largest drugmaker, today asked European regulators to approve an H5N1 vaccine that could be given to people before the virus begins spreading widely in humans.

Taiwan's National Health Research Institute conducted successful animal tests of a vaccine against the bird flu strain, the Associated Press reported today. The vaccine might be ready for mass production in two years after human testing is completed, the wire service reported, citing Pele Chong, leader of the Institute's vaccine development program.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer M. Freedman in Brussels at jfreedman@bloomberg.net ; Karima Anjani in Jakarta at kanjani@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 29, 2007 11:05 EST

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aXKcSO6166zA&refer=japan#

 

[sharon sanders]

Eurosurveillance report on H5N1 Outbreaks 1/07 - Hungary

Eurosurveillance report on H5N1 Outbreaks 1/07 - Hungary

Two outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in farm geese, Hungary, January 2007
Editorial team (eurosurveillance.weekly@hpa.org.uk), Eurosurveillance editorial office
First outbreak
On 21 January 2007, an increase in deaths among geese at a farm near Lapist? village (Csongr?d county in southern Hungary) was reported to the Hungarian veterinary authorities. The breeding flock consisted of 3355 birds. Two birds died on 19 January, eight on 20 January, and 18 on 21 January. During an investigation at the farm on 21 January, more than 30 birds with neurological symptoms were discovered. On 22 January, 29 more deaths in this flock were registered in the morning and further 33 during the day. [1,2]
The following measures were taken to contain the outbreak:

• On 22 January, five dead geese were sent to the national reference laboratory for further analysis.
• On 23 January, all 3265 birds on the farm were culled (90 died in the outbreak) and the farm was disinfected.
• A 3-kilometre protection zone and 10-kilometre surveillance zone were set up around the affected farm. There are no settlements within one kilometre distance from the farm, but there are 57 households with backyard poultry (1743 birds) within the 3-kilometre zone, and further 1253 households with backyard poultry (29 590 birds) and 8 large farms with around 47 000 birds within the 10-kilometre zone.
• All domestic birds within the two zones were examined.
• The European Commission was informed of the suspected outbreak of avian influenza.

On 24 January, the national reference laboratory announced that the samples collected from dead geese at the Lapist? farm contained the highly pathogenic A/H5N1 virus. These findings were confirmed on 30 January by the European Union reference laboratory in Weybridge, United Kingdom.
On 23-24 January, regional public health authorities assessed the possible risk of exposure of poultry workers [3]. One person who had worked closely with the birds but had not worn protective overalls was offered and accepted chemoprophylaxis immediately. Further 11 people who had been involved in culling the birds received medication after the virus was identified, because although they had been given all the necessary protective equipment (a Tyvec overall with headwear, rubber boots, heavy duty rubber work gloves, and a respiratory protective device with FFP3 filter), they had not observed all the recommended hygiene rules and the possibility that they had been exposed to the virus could not be excluded. There have been no reports of illness in people who were potentially exposed.
Second outbreak
On 25 January, veterinary authorities were notified of another possible outbreak of avian influenza at a goose farm in Derekegyh?za, 9 km from the site of the first outbreak. The flock consisted of 6000 four week-old and 3 386 eight week-old geese. On 23 January, 6 geese died, the following day the number of deaths was 24, on 25 January ? 21, on 26 January - 289. By 27 January altogether 2 596 geese died in the outbreak, the remaining 6790 geese were culled. In addition, in order to control the outbreak, further 367 birds which were found in 4 households within 1-kilometre distance from the outbreak were also culled.
On 30 January the Hungarian national reference laboratory confirmed that the outbreak at Derekegyh?za farm was also caused by the highly pathogenic A/H5N1 virus.
In consequence of the second outbreak, the ?A? zone was modified to include the 3- and 10-kilometre zones around both outbreak sites. Since 29 January clinical examination of poultry found within the ?A? zone and laboratory testing of samples has been carried on. In one sample taken from a goose the presence of A/H5 antibodies was asserted. Although none of the 4500 geese kept at the farm where this sample was taken from displayed any symptoms, the entire flock was culled on 7 February.
Three poultry workers who were employed at the farm in Derekegyh?za were offered and accepted chemoprophylaxis. No medication was given to the 21 people brought in to assist in the culling of birds, because they had used protective equipment correctly and it was highly likely that they had not been exposed to infection. They are, however, being monitored and there are no reports of illness so far. There will also be a serological follow-up of all people who were potentially exposed during these outbreaks. [3] Acknowledgements:
Dr ?gnes Csoh?n, Head of Department of Epidemiology, National Centre for Epidemiology, Budapest, Hungary.


References:

1. The outbreak description is based on the detailed outbreak chronology provided by the Hungarian National Animal Health Protection Institute (Orsz?gos ?llateg?szs?g?gyi Int?zet): http://sgicenter.oai.hu/
2. Current information on the bird flu situation in Hungary can be found on the website of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (F?ldmuvel?s?gyi ?s Vid?kfejleszt?si Miniszt?rium): http://www.fvm.gov.hu/
3. Orsz?gos Epidemiol?giai K?zpont. A/H5N1 mad?rinfluenza j?rv?ny egy Csongr?d megyei teny?szl?d ?llom?nyban. Epinfo 2007; 4:25-27. http://www.oek.hu/

http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ew/2007/070215.asp#3