South Korea’s response to the bird flu maybe considered as extreme but it needs to be done. The country has decided to “disinfect” all poultry farms, the agriculture ministry said last Tuesday.
“The government will take strong steps to stop the spread of bird flu, which is causing enormous damage to our poultry industry,” an agriculture official told AFP.
In the country’s capital, Seoul, 15,000 ducks, chickens, pet birds, and school aviaries are put down to stop the spread of the disease after there was a second confirmed case there. On the nationwide front, 6.8 million fowls have been culled since April 1.
Japanese officials are getting worried that the the H5N1 virus (also known as the bird virus) is spreading among the birds in the northern region. This was after a swan was positively identified and was tested for the disease.
According to a farm official in Hokkaido, there’s been no poultry affected so far in the said region. However, as a precaution, the authorities will be inspecting three nearby poultry farms and disinfect 180,000 chickens.
The said swan was reported found dead last May 5 near Saroma Lake, Japan. The other two dead swans were also found in Hokkaido and the other was in Akita.
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After confirming a bird flu outbreak earlier this year, the South Korean government isn’t taking this lightly. Besides culling all poultry in the affected areas, they have secured enough drugs against the dreaded disease for 2.5 million people.There hasn’t been any human cases in the country but they’ve taken precaution by vaccinating all the staff involved in the culling of the mentioned poultries.
Although the drugs weren’t identified, one is confirmed: oseltamivir, also known as Tamiflu and is manufactured by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding Ltd. This may seem drastic on the part of the government, but at least they are preparing for the worst.
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We reported last time that a possible vaccine is in the works at Purdue; here’s another positive light on the vaccine coming from Vietnam.
The vaccine which is currently being trialled on thirty Military Medical Institute students have gotten good results so far. The vaccine manufacturer, Vabiotech, was given the go signal to try the vaccine on humans after a good show on animal experiments last year.
The vaccine was based on developed monkey kidney cells. Although this may be good for Vietnam, there might be some problems with other countries as World Health Organization representative, Sean Tobin reported:
“Certainly there would be some extra level of scrutiny required, if they were to try and use this vaccine in other countries,” he said.
“But Vabiotech do have a long experience with other kinds of vaccines using this monkey kidney cell technology, they feel, and the government here feels quite confident in those vaccines.”
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It must be noted here that although the bird flu virus is highly contagious, it rarely causes any harm to the carrier. Thus, even while infected with an avian flu virus, the animal does not have “flu”. Typically, flu virus is adapted by one species of bird, and in turn spreads to another species. This happens more with the domestication of chickens and turkeys, as the avian flu virus acquired by one species rapidly mutates and infects the other species as well. This rapid spread can be stopped only by killing every domestic bird in the affected area.