The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has detected the presence of Eurasian/North American reassortant H5N2 avian influenza in a wild mallard duck in Fergus County, Montana. No illness or mortalities in domestic poultry in the United States have been detected.
The sample, taken from a hunter-harvested bird through routine surveillance, was tested at the Colorado State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and forwarded to USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. Characterization of the sample is ongoing.
“This appears to be one of the strains we saw during the outbreak in 2014 and 2015,” said Dr. Jack Shere, USDA Chief Veterinarian. “This finding serves as a powerful reminder that there is still avian influenza circulating in wild birds, and producers and industry need to continue to be vigilant about biosecurity to protect domestic poultry.”
Wild migratory waterfowl are a natural reservoir for avian influenza, and these viruses can travel in wild birds without them appearing sick. People should avoid contact with sick/dead poultry or wildlife. If contact occurs, wash your hands with soap and water and change clothing before having any contact with healthy domestic poultry and birds.
CDC considers the risk to the general public from these H5 HPAI infections to be low. No human infections have occurred in the United States. As a reminder, the proper handling and cooking of poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165 ˚F kills bacteria and viruses, including HPAI.
USDA is working with its partners to actively look for the disease in commercial poultry operations, live bird markets and in migratory wild bird populations.
Anyone involved with poultry production from the small backyard to the large commercial producer should review their biosecurity activities to assure the health of their birds. To facilitate such a review, a biosecurity self-assessment can be found at http://www.uspoultry.org/animal_husbandry/intro.cfm.
USDA recently launched Defend the Flock, a new educational campaign that provides commercial poultry owners and growers, as well as the poultry industry and federal, state, and local animal health officials, resources to help ensure that the best biosecurity practices are used to protect commercial flocks from infectious disease. Defend the Flock information can be found at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animalhealth/defendtheflock
In addition to practicing good biosecurity, all bird owners should prevent contact between their birds and wild birds and report sick birds or unusual bird deaths to State and Federal officials, either through their state veterinarian or through USDA’s toll-free number at 1-866-536-7593. Additional information on biosecurity for backyard flocks can be found at http://healthybirds.aphis.usda.gov.
There have been many more new outbreaks of avian influenza in the past few weeks in Europe, according to reports from the World Organization for Animal Health.
In the Netherlands, there have been 14 outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N8 virus since Mid December. Eleven of these outbreaks were in wild birds, affecting swans, ducks, a goose and an eagle. The other three outbreaks affected two breeder flocks and one layer flock in the Gelderland and Zuid-Holland regions, resulting in total deaths of over 81,000 birds.
Germany had seven outbreaks, affecting mainly turkeys. These outbreaks resulted in the deaths of over 13,000 birds. France reported 31 new highly pathogenic H5N8 outbreaks, as well as several new low pathogenic outbreaks. The country subsequently announced pre-emptive culling in some regions to curb the spread of the diseases.
Hungary has found a total of 53 new outbreaks, affecting over 887,000 birds. This included farmed birds and backyard birds, mainly ducks but also some geese and layers.
Poland has reported poultry deaths in recent weeks amounting to over 78,000 on farms and backyard holdings, along with four wild birds. Twelve separate outbreaks were reported in all.
Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have all reported new outbreak in backyard birds, Bulgaria found nine outbreaks, including one farm, several backyard flocks and some wild birds. In Slovakia, a backyard flock of 65 birds was affected. Montenegro and Greece reported one outbreak each in wild birds.
Outside Europe, Iran has also reported five more outbreaks, with four in backyard poultry and one on a commercial layer farm. Israel found 17 new outbreaks, some on farms affecting turkeys, breeding chickens or layers.
