China culls 30,000 birds due to bird flu outbreak
32,352 birds were culled by Chinese authorities after an outbreak of H5N6 was reported in a poultry farm in southwestern Guizhou province, mentioned Reuters.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, this is the first case of H5N6 reported in the area in the last couple of years.
Nevertheless, China is confronted with similar problems discovered in ducks, who now carry a deadly strain of bird flu. Highly pathogenic versions of H7N9 — a bird flu strain that’s proven particularly deadly to people — and H7N2 viruses have turned up in ducks in the Fujian province. These viruses replicate easily in the ducks and can kill them, researchers report September 27. The discovery is worrisome because the virus made the jump to ducks just ahead of efforts to eliminate H7N9 by vaccinating chickens, reports Science News magazine.
Since H7N9 began sickening people in 2013, a total of 1,625 people have contracted the bird flu strain and 623 have died. Most of those infected had been in contact with chickens. Initially, the virus killed about a third of people who caught it. But in 2016, the virus mutated to become even deadlier in both poultry and people, killing about half of the people it infected.
A vaccine against the virus protects chickens, and consequently people, the new study found. No human cases of H7N9 have been reported since October 2017. But ducks weren’t vaccinated because the original H7N9 virus didn’t infect them easily. Now, the Chinese authorities are trying to prevent the deadlier virus strains from spreading to other poultry, wild birds and to people.
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