Avian influenza outbreaks reported in Asia and Europe

March 2007

Outbreaks of the H5N1 virus were reported in several areas, including England, Russia, Hungary and Turkey in February.

In Russia, the H5N1 outbreak killed backyard poultry in three towns about 30 miles from Moscow. Officials there destroyed 196 birds and have quarantined the outbreak area, according to a press release from Russia’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

Russian officials confirmed the outbreak, which killed 34 chickens, ducks, geese, turkey and pigeons. Affected communities include Babenki, Pavlovskoye and Shihovo. Health officials are monitoring 5,453 residents near the outbreak areas, including 20 people who had contact with the birds.

Sadovod, a live-bird auction in Moscow, is the suspected source or the outbreak, as birds from the market were introduced to backyard flocks. The market has been closed and quarantined. In late January, officials confirmed three backyard poultry outbreaks in the Krasnodar region of southwestern Russia, near the Black Sea. No human H5N1 cases have been reported in Russia.

In Suffolk, England, preliminary tests from a turkey farm there may link the H5N1 virus strain to a recent outbreak in Hungary. The poultry company that owns the affected farm in England, Bernard Matthew Holdings Ltd., also has operations in Hungary. The company has suspended poultry movement between its operations in England and Hungary until further investigation. Birds in three of 21 poultry sheds used to house the 150,000 turkeys at the Suffolk farm tested positive for avian influenza, although they showed no clinical signs of infection before they were culled.

Farm geese in southwest Hungary tested positive for the H5N1 virus in January.

On Feb. 9, Turkish officials announced an outbreak at a farm in the southeastern part of the country. The outbreak affected birds in the Batman province, about 460 miles from Ankara. Wild birds were identified as the source of the outbreak. About 800 chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks and pigeons were destroyed.

No human cases were reported as a result of the outbreaks in Hungary and England.

In Egypt, a new case of human H5N1 infection was reported on Feb. 19. A 5-year-old boy from Sharkia Governorate who had contact with sick birds was hospitalized on Feb. 14. His condition remained stable a week later. The case was confirmed by the Egyptian Central Public Health Laboratory and the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3.

Of 22 cases confirmed in Egypt, 13 have been fatal.

The World Health Organization reported 167 human deaths from avian influenza since late 2003, when the H5N1 strain was first reported in Asia. In 2007, there have been nine deaths from H5N1 infection: three in Egypt, five in Indonesia and one in Nigeria.