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Spain: H5 Avian Flu In Doves

 

 

 

# 4921

 

 

A week ago, CopitoSP posting on FluTrackers from Madrid, Spain alerted forum members to an ongoing die off of `turkish doves’ in `Montjuïc and surrounding areas due to a disease of unknown origin’.

 

The original news item appeared in El Pais.com, and was titled Una enfermedad desconocida mata a cientos de tórtolas en los jardines de Montjuïc which translated works out to An unknown disease kills hundreds of pigeons in the gardens of Montjuïc.

 

An ongoing thread to track this event was created on FluTrackers, where you can read the full details of the story and follow up reports.

 

Today we have confirmation – courtesy of IronOreHopper - that HPAI H5 has been confirmed by FAO/Empres  (The Global Animal Disease Information System).

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While not exactly unheard of, HPAI infections in doves are fairly uncommon. 

 

A quick scan of my blog only turns up a handful of reports, including an Indonesian man from Tangerang  who – according to a Reuters report - was suspected to have contracted H5N1 from his neighbor's pet doves.

 

Doves were also mentioned in Thailand Issues Warning About Wild Birds, and Bird Flu Concerns In Dimapur, Nagaland.

 

Pigeons, however - which are of the same bird family (Columbidae) - have gotten somewhat more attention over the past few years, partially because they (and their feces) are so ubiquitous in many population centers.

 

I've written about the fear that pigeons might be vectors for the bird flu virus several times, including in The Origins Of The Feces  in December of 2006, and a year later in The Latest Poop On Pigeons.

 

Around the world, opinions vary over the threat these city dwellers present. In Bangladesh pigeons, along with ducks and chickens, are routinely culled in their fight against bird flu.

 

While in Saudi Arabia, they’ve claimed that pigeons are immune to the disease.

 

That may be a bit optimistic, since in May of 2007, in the CDC's  EID Journal , a dispatch appeared called Avian Influenza (H5N1) Virus in Waterfowl and Chickens, Central China,  where scientists deliberately infected a variety of birds to determine their susceptibility to the H5N1 virus.

 

Their study suggested that pigeons may be asymptomatic carriers of the avian flu virus.

 

Another study, from later that year, titled Role of Terrestrial Wild Birds in Ecology of Influenza A Virus (H5N1)  found that:

 

Least susceptible were pigeons, which had no deaths and very low levels of virus in oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs.

         <snip>

Because pigeons shed only low amounts of virus upon infection and they did not transmit to contact birds, their role in the ecology of influenza (H5N1) virus may be minor.

 

The good news is, since we haven't seen more than a few pigeon or dove related bird flu stories over the years, the evidence is scant that they pose much of a health threat to humans.

 

Of course, the H5N1 virus is constantly changing and evolving, and so that assessment could change in the future.

Related Post:

Bird Flu
H5N1

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