Category: Avian Influenza
South Africa: Poultry industry faces mounting losses amid bird flu outbreaks
Farmer’s Weekly Dr Abongile Balarane, general manager of the Layer Organisation of SA Poultry, told Farmer’s Weekly that initial cases of the H5N1 strain of HPAI occurred among layers in the Western Cape in April. This strain is the same as the one currently affecting the majority of other countries in the world. In June, however, a […]
Sep 5, 2023
Accelerated evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in free-ranging white-tailed deer
Nature The zoonotic origin of the COVID-19 pandemic virus highlights the need to fill the vast gaps in our knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 ecology and evolution in non-human hosts. Here, we detected that SARS-CoV-2 was introduced from humans into white-tailed deer more than 30 times in Ohio, USA during November 2021-March 2022. Subsequently, deer-to-deer transmission persisted […]
Aug 29, 2023
Forbes Researchers have discovered dozens of white-tailed deer infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 in Ohio, suggesting that spillover of the virus between humans and animals is less rare than previously believed, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Communications—news that comes as doctors are tracking a new Covid-19 variant in humans. […]
Aug 29, 2023
Scottish professor claims there are “signals” of a new pandemic
National World “Signals” from bird flu suggest that the next global pandemic could arrive sooner than expected. Professor Devi Sridhar of Edinburgh University, who advised the Scottish government during the coronavirus outbreak, said action was needed to avoid a repeat of that, describing it as a “tragedy for lives lost but also the restrictions put in […]
Aug 29, 2023
Bird flu was found at a new fur farm, seagulls died of the disease in Mikkeli
Finland News (Machine Translated) Highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu has been found in a new fur farm in Kauhava. In total, bird flu has now been found in 25 fur farms in Ostrobothnia, more than half of which are from the same locality, Kausti. The same virus has been confirmed as the cause of death of the […]
Aug 22, 2023
Bird flu ‘ticking time bomb’ cannot be stopped without major farming reforms, warns new report
Farmers Review Africa The report – called Bird flu: Only major farm reforms can end it – shows that, contrary to popular belief, wild birds are typically victims of the disease rather than the cause, and it is spiralling out of control due to the rise of factory farming. This view is supported by the international Scientific Task Force […]
Aug 22, 2023
The Pandemic Potential of U.S. Animal Markets
MedPageToday Zoonotic disease threats are not just an “over there” problem. COVID hit the U.S. while my partner and I were back home at a wedding in Kansas. At the time, there were a handful of cases on the coasts, but concerns about the new virus were drowned out by the busy reception full of […]
Aug 15, 2023
Outbreaks of avian influenza caused by influenza A(H5N1) in the Region of the Americas – August 2023
PAHO As of epidemiological week (EW) 31 of 2023, agricultural authorities in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, The United States of America, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela have detected outbreaks of HPAI A(H5N1) viruses in domestic birds, farm poultry and/or wild birds, and in mammals. Among the […]
Aug 13, 2023
Bird Flu Has Never Done This Before
The Atlantic Experts worry that H5N1 avian influenza is now endemic in North America. At bird breeding grounds this spring and summer, the skies have been clearer and quieter, the flocks drastically thinned. Last year, more than 60 percent of the Caspian terns at Lake Michigan vanished; the flock of great skuas at the Hermaness reserve, in Scotland, may have […]
Aug 8, 2023
Northern Ireland: First positive cases of mammals with bird flu confirmed
Belfast News Positive cases of bird flu have been found in two fox cubs, as well as in wild birds in Portrush, Co Antrim. The Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has confirmed the positive results for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) or bird flu. It is the first time mammals have been confirmed […]
Aug 1, 2023