Avian influenza 0119: First case nationwide, a chicken farm in Pingtung infected with H5N8; a Chinese bulbul wild bird in Miaoli died from the novel H5N3
Text by NewsMarket reporters Wang Wen-hao and Lin Hui-chen
Following yesterday's report from Changhua of the first case nationwide of the novel H5N2 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus infecting free-range chickens, today the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine under the Council of Agriculture announced that a free-range chicken farm in Pingtung has been infected with H5N8, with a flock size of 80,000 birds. This is not only the first domestic case of chickens infected with the H5N8 avian influenza virus, but also shows that H5N8 has spread from waterfowl to landfowl, indicating that the outbreak is extremely serious. In addition to the free-range chicken farm, at the Dawushan poultry farm, which had previously reported an outbreak of the older H5N2 highly pathogenic avian influenza, another farm raising 140,000 layer pullets has been confirmed to be infected with the H5 subtype highly pathogenic avian influenza virus; the virus subtype is still being analyzed, but it can already be confirmed as a novel avian influenza.
In addition, the first death of a wild bird infected with the novel avian influenza virus has also been found domestically. In Zhunan Township, Miaoli County, members of the public picked up three dead Chinese bulbuls, which were sent by the Miaoli County Animal Disease Control Center to the National Laboratory of Animal Health for testing, and today were confirmed to have died from infection with the novel H5N3 highly pathogenic avian influenza. The Miaoli County Animal Disease Control Center conducted inspections within a one-kilometer radius around where the bulbuls died, and a free-range chicken holding farm with a scale of about 100 birds was placed under movement control. Shih Tai-hua, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, said the source of the bulbuls' infection should be migratory birds.
