Bird Flu in Asymptomatic Ducks in Vietnam

[pandemic_1918]

Bird Flu in Asymptomatic Ducks in Vietnam

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01070502/Asymptomatic_Ducks_Vietnam.html

Recombinomics Commentary
January 7, 2005

>>According to the Department of Animal Health, since December last year, the relapse of bird flu has been seen in 25 communes in11 localities, namely the southern city of Can Tho, the northern province of Nam Dinh and the nine southern provinces of Dong Thap,Tien Giang, Long An, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Hau Giang, Tra Vinh, Binh Phuoc and An Giang, killing and leading to the forced culling of some 28,700 fowls, mainly ducks and chickens…..
……The southern city of Can Tho, which finds that nearly half of samples from ducks raised in the locality are tested positive to the bird flu virus strain of H5<<

Nearly half of the ducks being positive for H5 is a very major concern. WHO had issued an alert on October 29, 2004 on H5N1 infections in asymptomatic ducks. Lab experiments had shown that isolates from patients in Vietnam and Thailand could infect ducks asymptomatically. The virus would grow to high titers in the intestine before excretion. The excreted virus was unusually stable.

The asymptomatic ducks posed two types of problems. Because the ducks were not sick, they were provocative targets for a second bird flu infection. Dual infections leads to both reassortment (shuffling of genes0 and recombination (creation of new genes). It is the creation of new genes that drives the current H5N1 pandemic and recombination provides the mechanism for creating a virus that can be efficiently transferred human to human while maintaining the high case fatality rate of about 70%.......

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Maple]

2. There seems to be

a lot of overcrowding of birds there...and they never look well taken care of.

Most of these bird diseases, and some animal ones too, seem to originate there.

[Mojambo]

3. Disease specialists are routinely

horrified by the conditions in which they raise their fowl. It is only a matter of time before another 1919 flu hits.

It'll be coming from there, just like last time.