Weekly Overview: Bird Flu Outbreaks Hit Further Countries
GLOBAL - In the last week, new outbreaks of avian flu have been reported in Germany, Italy, Canada, the US and Japan.
18 December 2014
2 minute read
By: In the last week, bird flu has returned to Germany. A turkey farm in Lower Saxony was affected, with the loss of almost 18,000 birds. The H5N8 virus has been confirmed, the same as previous outbreaks in another state, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The disease has also hit Italy for the first time. Again, the H5N8 subtype of the virus was responsible and turkeys were affected, this time almost 32,000 in the Veneto region of north-eastern Italy.
The H5N8 virus has also been detected in wild birds in Japan, and 4,000 birds have been destroyed following an outbreak in the main poultry-producing area of the country, Miyazaki.
In Canada, a further two outbreaks of the H5N2 variant have been confirmed, all in the same area of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, affecting 53,000 laying birds.
And in the US, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) of the H5N2 and H5N8 variants has been detected and confirmed in Washington state.
