Jason Loghry, Birds Korea
This week a link to the StarTribune news article, “Bird flu continues to hit Minnesota“, was shared on the Facebook group page Avian Influenza aka “Bird Flu”.
Here is some of the news from the article:
“Disproving the notion that warmer weather would kill off the bird flu, the virus keeps wiping out poultry flocks in Minnesota, the latest a pullet farm in Renville County with 415,000 chickens.”
Here is the comment by Dr. Hon Ip that accompanied the shared link:
3-Jun-2015.
“While several people, including the APHIS administrator has said that the current bird flu outbreak will end because of elevated temperature during the summer, an article today in the Minneapolis Star indicates it has yet to end. Some clue might be provided by looking at other countries which have had outbreaks with this group of viruses. South Korea has recently added to the H5N8 virus sequences in public databases.
Between Jan 1, 2014 and Feb 6, 2015 (the collection date of the last virus deposited), sequences and information on a total of 117 H5N8 viruses are available. At least one virus was isolated every month in 2014, with the exception of August and October. Moreover, between March and November, all isolates were from poultry, with detection in wild birds only beginning in November.
This would seem to support the notion that in Korea, in 2014, the H5N8 virus was sustained in their domestic poultry production system even during a period of time when the average temperature is above 20C (68F) from June to September. So, if outbreak in farms continues to be reported such as the Minn Star article, does that mean transmission is from farm to farm?”
As always, comments are welcomed!