WattAgNet: Avian influenza returns to India, Bhutan

Virus affects birds in backyard flock, zoo

New cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) have been confirmed at a zoo in India and among poultry on a farm in Bhutan. Based on reports received by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the disease appears to have been brought under control following previous outbreaks in Africa, Iraq and France.

India, Bhutan on heightened avian flu alert
Last week, Indian media reported the deaths of a number of birds at a zoo in New Delhi, prompting widespread testing that confirmed the disease as the cause of mortality of several storks at Gwalior Zoo in Madhya Pradesh in central India.

According to India Live Today, there have also been cases in Rajasthan in the north-west of the country, which borders Pakistan and Madhya Pradesh. The Kerala government has warned poultry farmers to be on alert for signs of the disease. So far, there have been no reported cases of flu of avian origin in people.

Following previous outbreaks of the disease earlier this year, the authorities declared that India was free of avian flu just last month.

After an absence of around 11 months, H5N1 HPAI has returned to Bhutan, to Chukha district in the south-west of the country, the veterinary authority has reported to OIE. Of a mixed backyard flock of around 3,000 birds at Alubari, 13 poultry died and a further 61 have been destroyed. The outbreak appears to be confined to an “isolated pocket” of birds, as no further infections have been detected during the…