# 4296
Last night there were a pair of news briefs out of Israel regarding a `bird flu’ outbreak discovered in that country. These early reports mostly sought to reassure and provided scant details.
Both come from Arutz Sheva, an Israeli news media.
Bird Flu Discovered at Kibbutz
Reported: 22:45 PM - Jan/26/10
(IsraelNN.com)An outbreak of bird flu was discovered Tuesday night at a henhouse in Kibbutz Ein Shemer. The disease was found in a henhouse containing about 43,000 hens. Agriculture Ministry workers began Tuesday night marking off the birds to be culled. All agricultural production in the area has been shut down until further notice.
This report was followed by a statement from the Health Ministry.
Health Ministry: No Danger to Humans from Bird Flu
Reported: 23:45 PM - Jan/26/10
(IsraelNN.com)
The Health Ministry said Tuesday that the strain of bird flu discovered earlier would not infect humans. The Ministry said that it had taken steps to protect workers dealing with culling the infected birds, and that in previous incidents of bird flu no humans had been affected.
This muddle of a second statement seeks to reassure that the virus detected posed no danger to humans, but stressed the protective measures workers were taking to prevent infection.
Not necessarily a contradiction, of course. Protective measures are taken even when dealing with a LPAI (Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza).
Today we learn from the required OIE filing that the virus is not some LPAI as the initial reports might suggest, but that it is HPAI (Highly Pathogenic) H5N1.
A hat tip to Ironorehopper who posted a summary of this OIE Report on FluTrackers overnight.
The link below is to the FT summation.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza, Israel
Information received on 26/01/2010 from Dr Moshe Chaimovitz, Director , Veterinary Services and Animal Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developement, BEIT DAGAN, Israel
- Summary
- Report type Immediate notification
- Start date 24/01/2010
- Date of first confirmation of the event 26/01/2010
- Report date 26/01/2010
- Date submitted to OIE 26/01/2010
- Reason for notification Reoccurrence of a listed disease
- Date of previous occurrence 04/01/2008
- Manifestation of disease Clinical disease
- Causal agent Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus
- Serotype H5N1
- Nature of diagnosis Suspicion, Clinical, Laboratory (basic), Laboratory (advanced), Necropsy
- This event pertains to the whole country
- New outbreaks
- Summary of outbreaks
- Total outbreaks: 1
- Location(s) - HAIFA (EN SHEMER, HADERA)
- Total animals affected: Species - Susceptible - Cases - Deaths - Destroyed - Slaughtered
- Birds - 43000 - 700 - 100 - 0 - 0
- Outbreak statistics
- Species - Apparent morbidity rate - Apparent mortality rate - Apparent case fatality rate - Proportion susceptible animals lost*
- Birds - 1.63% - 0.23% - 14.29% - 0.23%
- * Removed from the susceptible population through death, destruction and/or slaughter
- Epidemiology
- Source of the outbreak(s) or origin of infection
- Unknown or inconclusive
- Epidemiological comments
- The epidemiological investigation is in process.
Israel saw their first outbreaks of H5N1 in 2006, with a return in 2008. Their last OIE report was filed in August 2008.
The reassurance from the Health Ministry that `the strain of bird flu discovered earlier would not infect humans’, now rings hollow given the OIE report above.
While the danger to humans may be low, it certainly isn’t zero. Which makes this less than a sterling example of good risk communication.
The two big concerns right now, however, are whether this virus has spread to other farms, and exactly how did it happen to re-emerge in Israel after an absence of 17 months.
The question of why the virus continues to be reintroduced into an area months or even years after eradication is one that remains largely unanswered.
Migratory birds? Illicit Poultry Trade? An unknown host reservoir?
It may well be that all three have been responsible at one time or another. Or perhaps some other mechanism we are unaware of.
While in the global scheme of things this outbreak may prove to be more of a nuisance than a danger to Israel, it illustrates that the bird flu problem hasn’t gone away.
Even in countries where the virus isn’t considered endemic.
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