http://www1.apan-info.net Virtual Information Center en-US Virtual Information Center apanaccessreqs@apan-info.net The world's paramount authority on trade in farm animals on Wednesday urged countries not to let up in the fight against deadly bird flu. Outbreaks of H5N1 avian influence among poultry fell last year, as did the toll among humans who came into contact with infected birds, but the story is far from over, said Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE. "There is still a risk from the poultry trade, because the virus has become endemic in some countries that have been unable to get rid of it," Vallat told reporters. Vallat singled out Egypt and Indonesia as countries where, he said, veterinary surveillance was insufficient. In China and Vietnam, said Vallat, outbreaks of H5N1 had been managed thanks to systematic vaccination of poultry flocks. http://www1.apan-info.net/tabid/1755/ArticleID/10735/Default.aspx VIC Author Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:01:35 GMT http://www1.apan-info.net/tabid/1755/ArticleID/10735/Default.aspx Vietnamese health officials have confirmed that an 8-year-old girl has been infected with the deadly bird flu virus. The Health Ministry says the girl from Thanh Hoa province in northern Vietnam tested positive for the H5N1 virus on January 3rd, after being hospitalized on December 27th. The ministry says she is recovering. Officials say a large number of chickens and ducks died in the past month in the area near her home, and that she had eaten meat from one of the sick birds. 52 people have died of bird flu in Vietnam since 2003. http://www1.apan-info.net/tabid/1755/ArticleID/10734/Default.aspx VIC Author Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:00:34 GMT http://www1.apan-info.net/tabid/1755/ArticleID/10734/Default.aspx The sister of a Vietnamese bird flu patient died in hospital last week, health officials said on Thursday, while denying the virus was to blame, even though no tests were carried out before she was buried. Authorities earlier this week reported Vietnam's first human case of bird flu since early last year, saying tests had shown the eight-year-old girl had contracted the H5N1 virus and adding that she was recovering well. On Thursday, several state newspapers reported that the girl's 13-year-old sister had died last Friday, just days after both girls had eaten poultry dishes in their family home in northern Thanh Hoa province. When contacted by AFP, a provincial health official ruled out the possibility that avian influenza had caused the 13-year-old sister's death. The elder girl "had an infection and diarrhoea, not like bird flu," said Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, acting director of the provincial health department. http://www1.apan-info.net/tabid/1755/ArticleID/10733/Default.aspx VIC Author Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:58:59 GMT http://www1.apan-info.net/tabid/1755/ArticleID/10733/Default.aspx China has issued an alert against bird flu following the death of a 19-year-old woman from the disease. The woman died after she came into contact with poultry in a market in central Hebei province. Since the outbreak of bird flu in 2003, 21 people in China have died. Worldwide, 247 people have died. But this is China's first bird flu death in almost a year, and the authorities here have reacted by declaring a bird flu alert. Officials have shut down and disinfected poultry markets in Hebei. In a statement the World Health Organization said it was concerned by the death of the 19-year-old woman, Huang Yanqing. http://www1.apan-info.net/tabid/1755/ArticleID/10717/Default.aspx VIC Author Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:05:31 GMT http://www1.apan-info.net/tabid/1755/ArticleID/10717/Default.aspx KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Veterinary workers culled poultry in Darjeeling on Wednesday after a fresh H5N1 bird flu outbreak, officials said. Veterinary and health workers scoured the verdant Himalayan region looking for dead chickens and ducks and planned to cull at least 7,000 birds in the next 24 hours. Poultry products had been banned in Darjeeling town, popular with tourists. "Dead bird samples from backyard poultry tested positive for H5N1 in the Rangli Rangliot area of Darjeeling hills on Wednesday," Surendra Gupta, a senior government official, told Reuters. Bird flu first broke out in India in 2006. Millions of chicken and ducks have been culled since then to contain the virus, but it has resurfaced from time to time. India has reported no human infections. http://www1.apan-info.net/tabid/1755/ArticleID/10716/Default.aspx VIC Author Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:04:26 GMT http://www1.apan-info.net/tabid/1755/ArticleID/10716/Default.aspx