- The latest OIE report from Turkey describes the explosion
of H5N1 outbreaks. The report includes 17 confirmed outbreaks in
domestic poultry. These outbreaks began as early as November 25,
2005 in Agri. Additional outbreaks were confirmed in Aydin, Bursa,
Erzurum, Igdir, Istanbul, S. Ufra, Van, and Yozgat. The likely source
of the outbreaks is under investigation, but wild birds have been sourced
as the cause of two of the Agri outbreaks, and transport of poultry was
linked to the Yozgat outbreaks.
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- In addition, 5 instances of wild bird H5 infections were
identified. These began as early as November 21, 2005 in Bitlis and
Erzincan. Other provinces with confirmed H5 infections in wild birds
included Ankara, Aydim, and Yozgat. Birds positive fro H5 included
wild ducks, pigeons, swans, comorants, and sparrows.
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- However, the H5 outbreaks exploded in 2006 in 50 locations
in Ardahan (1), Batman (6), Bayburt (1), Diyarbakir (8), Elazig (1), Erzurum
(4), Eskisehir (1), Isparta (2), Izmir (1), Karabuk (1), Karaman (1), Kars(4),
Konya (1), Malatya (1), Mugla (2), Mus (5), Samsun (2), Siirt (2), Sivas
(1), S.Urfa (1), Van (1), Yozgat (1), Gaziantep (2).
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- The explosion of cases in 2006 suggests more human cases
will soon be reported. Moreover, the widespread distribution of these
outbreaks indicates the lack of OIE reports of H5N1 in Turkey's neighboring
countries is not due to a lack of H5N1 in Turkey's neighboring countries.
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- The simultaneous detection of human H5N1 cases across
Turkey also indicates H5N1 human cases are also in Turkey's neighbors.
Today there was report of a suspect fatal case who developed symptoms
15 days ago in Iraq, suggesting that the frequency of human cases will
rise in neighboring countries also.
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- The lack of reports from these countries highlights serious
surveillance or reporting flaws. The repeated denials of H5N1 in
dying poultry lack credibility and increase the likelihood that H5N1 will
become endemic in the region.
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- © 2005 Recombinomics.
- All rights reserved.
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