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Information from PROMED on AI
« on: May 3rd, 2006, 10:11am » |
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Information from PROMED on Avian Influenza
AVIAN INFLUENZA, POULTRY VS MIGRATORY BIRDS (16)
***********************************************
[1]
Date: 30 Apr 2006
From: Joe Dudley <jdudley@eaicorp.com>
The below article [2] published on 16 Mar 2005 by Thanh Nien News contains a detailed description of the various transportation systems used in the trans-frontier poultry smuggling trade between China and Viet Nam.
This article includes an interesting statement that "old hens" [spent layer hens] comprise a significant proportion of the live poultry smuggling trade between Viet Nam and China. It should also be noted in this context that bulk sales of "old birds" -- most probably spent layer hens -- by commercial poultry producers were implicated as a possible contributing factor in at least one human bird flu cluster
in Turkey (see 20060111.0100).
Research presented at the 6th International Symposium on Avian Influenza (3-6 Apr 2006) indicate that there are at least 2 reasons why this factor may be significant:
1. Genetics research on H5N1 strains circulating in Viet Nam indicates that there was at least one new introduction of an H5N1 strain from China to Viet Nam during 2005. (The reference to the new introduction of H5N1 to Viet Nam during 2005 came from a presentation by Robert Webster, and the finding was published in a PNAS paper this past February 2006 -- PNAS 103, see pg 2847, column 2 PP 2.)
2. Experimental studies have shown that vaccinated chickens can harbor and transmit the H5N1 virus without showing any outward signs of infection, and that vaccinated chickens as well as domesticated ducks can serve as infectious asymptomatic carriers of the Asian H5N1 HPAI virus. (The reference for transmission by vaccinated chickens is M. Bublot et al. of Merial (David Swayne of USDA SEPRL co-author), and for transmission in vaccinated ducks is J.A van der Groot et al (CIADC, Leystadt)).
The proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Avian Influenza will be published in the December 2006 issue of Avian Diseases, and the contributed papers should provide many valuable new insights into the mechanisms underlying the spread of the H5N1 bird flu during 2005/2006 from Asia into the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.
Joseph P. Dudley, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist
EAI Corporation
<joseph.p.dudley@saic.com>
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Re: Information from PROMED on AI
« Reply #1 on: May 3rd, 2006, 10:12am » |
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[2]
Date: 1 May 2006
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Thanh Nien News, 16 Mar 2006 [edited]
Concerns mount as Chinese chickens illegally flow into Viet Nam
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The growing illegal import of chickens from China to Viet Nam via northern border gates has become a concern for the country, as the smuggling poses a threat to Viet Nam's attempts to contain the bird flu.
Although the Vietnamese prime minister has issued a ban on the import and transportation of poultry from other countries in order to control the spread of bird flu, smugglers have managed to set up an elaborate system to get chickens from China across the border unchecked. Up to 70 percent of chickens smuggled via the northern border into Lang Son province have escaped proper checks from border
guards and police forces, said Captain Le Quang Dao, head of the border guard station surrounding the Huu Nghi International Border Gate.
According to a Thanh Nien investigation, smugglers have designed a sophisticated system to illegally import chickens from China.
1st, the chickens from China are gathered at certain areas near the Huu Nghi Border Gate. From there, smugglers hire porters carrying empty cages to walk up the mountain paths in the area during the night.
The porters then bring the cages, which each contain 40 chickens, down to the mountain foot where a fleet of Minsk motorbike drivers await to carry the cages into Lang Son town. In order to avoid being caught, the motorbike drivers drive at high speeds of 80 to 90 km per hour. From Lang Son town, trucks then transport the smuggled chickens to other localities.
Chinese chickens are usually bought at 12 000 to 13 000 VND [USD 0.75-0.82] per kilogram at border gates and then resold for 17 000 VND [USD 1.06] in Lang Son town, according to smugglers who have been caught. In other provinces, the price of illegally traded chickens can go up to 40 000 VND [USD 2.50].
To ensure they don't get caught, smugglers also have people hanging around near the offices of police and border guards. These people are assigned to immediately sound the alarm when an officer leaves the office.
But, most smugglers are unaware of the dangers they pose by bringing the unchecked chickens into the country. Even worse, some do not care about their health or the health of others.
On 16 Mar 2006, police forces stopped a truck carrying some 1.6 tons of chickens smuggled from China. The chickens, worth an estimated 20 million VND [USD 1255] were then transferred to market monitors for destruction. Most of the chickens were old hens, with some already dead. According to local residents, the Chinese people have sold such chickens to Viet Nam but then go to markets along the border to buy
Vietnamese chickens.
When An Thi Binh from Bac Giang province was arrested as the truck owner of the smuggled chickens, she showed no fear that the chickens could possibly carry the bird flu. So far, "nothing has happened to other people trading chickens like me. If anything happens, I will be the 1st to die," she said.
According to Captain Dao, all smuggled chickens caught by police or border guards have been destroyed.
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[Between the laxly supervised export of commercial poultry and the efficient illegal export of live poultry, _vide supra_, and poultry parts (see previous postings), there is much to concern the rest of us. We are fortunate that Viet Nam has a vaccination policy. - Mod.MHJ]
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Re: Information from PROMED on AI
« Reply #2 on: May 3rd, 2006, 10:13am » |
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[3]
Date: 1 May 2006
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: AP, CNN, 30 Apr 2006 [edited]
Smuggled Pets Worry Bird Flu Watchdogs
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Bird flu entering the U.S. through smuggled wildlife is a growing worry for government officials already on the lookout for migrating wild birds. The concern over the trade in wild animals, pets and animal parts has some precedent, here and abroad.
Gambian rats imported from Africa brought the monkeypox virus to the United States in 2003. They infected prairie dogs purchased as pets. 72 people in the Midwest became ill but none died.
In 2004, 2 Crested Hawk-Eagles carrying the virulent strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus were seized from the hand luggage of a Thai passenger at Brussels International Airport in Belgium. The passenger had planned to sell the birds to a Belgian falconer. Not one of the 25 people exposed to the virus became ill. Officials killed 200 parrots and 600 smaller birds that had contact with the Crested Hawk-Eagles.
"We're very concerned about it coming into the U.S. by whatever means," Assistant Secretary of State Claudia McMurray said.
A surveillance plan for monitoring migratory birds says a migrating wild bird is the most likely carrier of the H5N1 virus. The plan, developed by the Interior and Agriculture departments and the state of Alaska for use in all 50 states, also says the virus could arrive through smuggled poultry, an infected traveler, black-market trade in exotic birds or even an act of bioterrorism.
Authorities in other countries are similarly wary. An estimated 4 500 chickens from China are smuggled into Viet Nam every day, and the H5N1 virus has shown up in samples taken from some of the confiscated birds.
The United States and China are the biggest markets for an estimated USD 10 billion global trade in illegal wildlife. The black market in wildlife and wildlife parts is 2nd only to trafficking in arms and drugs. "It's not just a matter of the U.S. telling China, 'Clean up your act.' The 2 of us are both going to get a handle on it together," said McMurray, head of the State Department's Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
About 330 000 live birds were imported into the United States in 2004. Just 374 were denied entry, suggesting smugglers may focus on different routes. The ones denied entry came mainly from Mexico, Guyana and Ghana. The biggest sources of live birds were Canada, with 117 000; Taiwan, 50 000; Tanzania, nearly 40 000; and Belgium, 24 000.
The U.S. banned imports of all live birds, bird parts and bird products from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam in February 2004. Since then, the ban has been expanded to any country or region where bird flu is thought to exist.
"The borders are where the increased emphasis needs to be," said Simon Habel, director of TRAFFIC North America, which works closely with the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, based in Geneva, Switzerland. "There's an endless string of clever ways people try to bring birds and animals into the country," said Habel, whose trade-monitoring network is a joint program of the World Wildlife Fund and IUCN-The World Conservation Union.
More than 200 Fish and Wildlife Service special agents also do old-fashioned police work to try to stop the trade. "The problem is illegal trade that's underground, where smugglers are bypassing that whole structure of quarantine and permits," said Nicholas Throckmorton, an agency spokesman.
An additional 120 agency field officers inspect wildlife shipments at 35 ports, airports and other locations, alongside Customs and Border Patrol officials. The State Department hopes to also enlist private businesses in that effort. "The labeling on these items that come in, people don't tell the truth about what's in them," McMurray said. "That's part of the reason why I want to talk to the airlines, the shippers, the Fed-Exes and the UPSes of the world and say, 'Help us with this.'"
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[While one might argue that infected smuggled birds present no risk because they will die en route or end up in an urban pet store -- a similar argument to that about regularly vaccinated unexposed apartment dogs being at zero risk of rabies, so why go to the expense of ensuring their vaccination -- the reality is that the volume of
smuggled wildlife, including birds, is vast. Thus, even if only a trivial proportion are likely to come in contact, directly or indirectly, with poultry, thus potentially generating a really significant volume of virus, the outcome of trivial .P x 1000's of
birds comes to mean something in epidemiologic reality.
Our young members will not remember the parrot craze of the early 1970s. Parrots in unbelievable numbers were moved out of Africa and South America to the northern latitudes, legally and illegally. This resulted in Newcastle disease epidemics in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and in the USA, UK, and Western Europe. The cost was enormous. - Mod.MHJ]
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