Over the previous month, the variety of extremely pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks in Australian poultry flocks has risen to 3. Additionally formally recording additional instances have been two states in India, in addition to South Korea and Japan.
An outbreak of HPAI has been confirmed at a 3rd poultry farm within the state of Victoria, reviews Australian Broadcasting Company ABC. Birds on the desk egg farm operated by Farm Pleasure Meals in Lethbridge have examined optimistic for the H7N3 serotype of the HPAI virus.
This is similar virus that was linked to an earlier outbreak at a layer farm in Meredith. This began in mid-Might, and resulted within the deaths of three,000 of the 413,000 hens on the affected premises in Meredith, additionally within the state of Victoria, in keeping with the official notification to World Organisation for Animal Well being (WOAH). This was the first detection of the H7N3 in Victoria, and the supply of an infection was unknown.
The 2 farms are round 10 minutes’ drive aside, reviews ABC.
Newest outbreak in Lethbridge is in a flock of round 80,000 free-range birds, which represents round 8% of Farm Pleasure Meals’ whole hen flock. An additional 40,000 birds managed by the corporate in the Lethbridge space are at the moment being examined for HPAI.
The identical firm was hit by two HPAI outbreaks in 2020.
Final month, Australian authorities confirmed the first ever detection of the H7N9 HPAI virus serotype within the nation.
Testing optimistic for this variant was a flock of round 160,000 hens at business farm in Terang, additionally within the state of Victoria. This virus seems to genetically associated to the pressure detected not too long ago in Australia’s wild birds, in keeping with the WOAH notification.
Additional HPAI outbreaks amongst Asian poultry flocks
To WOAH, India’s veterinary authority has retrospectively reported 5 outbreaks of HPAI induced by the H5N1 virus variant within the southern state of Kerala. Affecting a complete of virtually 78,000 poultry, the outbreaks have been in flocks described as “backyards” inside round a 10-km radius throughout the month of April.
In early April, an outbreak linked to the identical virus variant was confirmed at a farm with round 2,300 poultry within the jap state of Jharkhand.
Following a two-month hiatus, the H5N1 HPAI virus was detected in a South Korean poultry flock. Affected have been round 22,000 birds at a farm within the southern province of South Gyeongsang, in keeping with the notification to WOAH.
In the meantime, Taiwan’s whole outbreaks in home birds since November of 2023 has risen to 39.
Based mostly on WOAH reviews, the newest outbreaks began within the interval March 22 to April 12. These affected six farms and one slaughterhouse — a complete of greater than 130,000 poultry together with native chickens, laying hens, and meat chickens.
View our persevering with protection of the world avian influenza state of affairs.
