H5N1 bird flu in China – 18,000 chickens culled in Hunan, China
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China reported an outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus, after which, almost 18,000 chickens were culled in a farm in China’s southern Hunan province. This province is next to the epicenter of the separate coronavirus outbreak, the Hubei province.
In China’s Shaoyang city, this case occurred on a farm with 7,850 chickens, out of which, nearly half of the flock, 4,500 chickens died of the bird flu.
On Sunday, the ministry announced the outbreak in a statement with not many details on when the cull happened or when the outbreak occurred. However, following the outbreak, the authorities have culled 17,828 chickens.
There has been no reported of the H5N1 virus cases in humans.
The H5N1 outbreak is not just in China. On a poultry farm in the central state of Chattisgarh, India, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) cited a report from India’s fisheries and animal husbandry ministry reporting an outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus on last Wednesday. To contain the bird flu virus, the Indian authorities started culling chickens
and destroying eggs.In recent weeks, a different strain of the virus, the H5N8 virus has spread throughout eastern Europe.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the H5N1 avian flu has killed 455 people worldwide since 2003. According to U.N. experts, a bird flu outbreak in China ended up costing $6.5 billion in economic losses in 2013. A Paris-based OIE said in a website alert that the virus had killed 5,634 out of 21,060 birds on the farm in Baikunthpur and all of the remaining birds were slaughtered.
