AVIAN INFLUENZA (30): USA (CALIFORNIA) H5N9, DUCK, FIRST REPORT
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Date: Mon 27 Jan 2025 14:18 EST
Source: Reuters [edited]
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-reported-first-outbreak-h5n9-bird-flu-poultry-woah-says-2025-01-27/
The United States has reported its first outbreak of H5N9 bird flu in
poultry on a duck farm in California, the World Organisation for
Animal Health (WOAH) said on Monday [27 Jan 2025;
https://wahis.woah.org/#/in-review/6201?reportId=171676].
US authorities also detected the more common H5N1 strain on the same
farm in Merced County, California, they said in a report to
Paris-based WOAH, adding the almost 119 000 birds on the farm had been
killed by December 2 [2024].
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly called bird flu,
has spread around the globe in recent years, leading to the culling of
hundreds of millions of poultry. It also spread to dozens of mammal
species, including dairy cows in the United States and killed a person
in Louisiana.
The strain having caused most damage in recent years has been H5N1.
H5N9 is rarer.
“This is the first confirmed case of HPAI H5N9 in poultry in the
United States,” the US Department of Agriculture said in the report to
the WOAH.
“The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in
conjunction with State Animal Health and Wildlife Officials, are
conducting comprehensive epidemiological investigations and enhanced
surveillance in response to the HPAI related events,” it added.