BIRD flu tests will be carried out today on seven swans found dead in a river near Caernarfon. The carcasses were discovered floating in the Seiont not far from the town’s historic castle. Locals alerted harbour master Richard Jones on Wednesday, and his team recovered three dead swans in the morning, followed by four more in the afternoon. Yesterday the team were back at the riverbank after residents reported another swan appeared to be ill. Mr Jones said he was initially advised by Defra that the government would not test for bird flu in cases involving less than 10 dead wild birds. He was advised to safely bag up the birds in black bin liners and throw them into a waste bin.
The above comments raise additional concerns regarding H5N1 surveillance. The lack of testing and reporting has been a concern for the past several years, and recently has received additional attention due to Indonesia’s comments on reducing reporting frequencies on human H5N1 infections. Although this announcement has received a great deal of attention, the under-reporting of H5N1 in birds and humans is widespread.
England has a surveillance program, but as noted above, the level of testing is a major concern. When H5N1 reports were widespread in western Europe in early 2006, England reported one H5N1 positive swan that washed up on the shores of Scotland. That isolate was closely related to H5N1 detected in Sweden, Denmark, and northern Germany, suggesting that the level of H5N1 in England was significantly higher than the one reported positive. Read More
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